While You Were Gone
by Maxine-san
Summary: Duo's assigned a mission that none of the other pilots know about, and they can't find out about it. To keep it a secret, he has to have someone take his place for a while. Will that person be able to act like Duo without slipping up? Finished!
1. Prologue

While You Were Gone - Prologue

_disclaimer_ - I don't own Gundam Wing!

_notes_ - I started writing While You Were Gone here on FFnet in 2001, and it was finished in October of 2002. So yeah, it's old, lol. I haven't changed anything since then, so if you just so happen to recognize the fic, that's why. Though I kind of doubt anyone from back then would be reading this again, hehe. I'm actually quite fond of this fic, so I'm hoping y'all like it!

* * *

Duo flew through space in the shuttle that the Gundam Pilots used when they went on missions. Checking to make sure that all of his communication devices were off for the time being, Duo landed in the spaceport below him. After docking the shuttle, he jumped out and looked around. Seeing the person he was looking for, Duo ran towards her and wrapped his arms around her slender shoulders, causing her to jump in shock.

"Geez, Duo! You scared me half to death!" she said, but she couldn't stay mad for long and was soon returning the hug. "Man is it good to see you! How've you been?"

"Good, good. Same as usual, I guess." He paused. "So...are you sure you're ready to do this?"

"I-I think so," the girl replied. "I think I've got everything down. Look, my braid is finally long enough." Duo chuckled. She looked at him doubtfully for a moment. "Are you sure the others won't notice? I mean, I'm a girl, and you're a guy, and they know you really well now. Won't they notice?"

"Babe, don't worry about it," Duo reassured. "They aren't as smart as they let on. Besides have you looked in a mirror lately?" The girl shook her head. "Well then look at my face, because we look exactly the same."

"Duo, that's not exactly a good thing."

"Why? You should consider yourself lucky. Any other person would give anything to have my looks." The girl laughed.

"You are SO full of yourself!" Duo laughed a little, and then looked at her seriously.

"Trio," he started, then stopped and smiled. "I love that name."

"Oh no, don't you go starting on how I copied my name from you and it's so cool because you're my big brother and I look up to you and blah blah blah." The girl, now known as Trio, said.

"But it's so cool, I love it. You have to look at it from my point of view. A little nameless boy's friend, whose name was Solo, dies. So the nameless boy decides to call himself Duo, because he believes Solo will always be with him in spirit. Then the little boy's younger sister decides to call herself Trio so she doesn't feel left out. It's so cute!"

"I've heard that story way too many times. Besides," Trio said, crossing her arms, "we don't really know if your older or not. We only know that we're twins. I COULD be older."

"Nah, it's too fun thinking I'm older." Trio shook her head exasperatedly.

"Anyway," she said, "back to the point of this conversation. You're sure they won't notice?"

"Yes! How many times are you going to ask me that? Look, it's only two months."

"Two months is a long time Duo...Wait a second, two! I thought your mission was only one month?"

"Well, it is..." said Duo sheepishly. "But Professor G said I get a month off afterwards, so I'm going to spend it with Hilde."

"Oh ok, and when exactly were you going to tell me this!"

"Um...today?"

"Right, sure."

"Look, you need to be getting back, or else the others will start wondering what happened to me." Duo wrapped his arms around Trio in a last hug. "Now, do you think you'll be able to act like me for two months?"

"Hopefully. It can't be too difficult. Eat really fast and sloppy, wake up late, always wear my hair in a braid, wear a lot of black, stuff like that."

"Hardy ha ha, that was soooo funny. You're hilarious," Duo said sarcastically.

"I know, I try."

"Right, so, um...how are you hiding your...uh, feminine features?"

"Well, I'm taping down my chest, which is not cool, but I'm doing this because I love you, and I've given up shaving, because I don't think that you shave your legs, right?"

"Of course not!"

"...Do you shave at all?" Trio asked, lifting her hand up to feel Duo's face. He quickly pulled away and blushed slightly, then mumbled something. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?"

"I said I've never had to!" Duo said louder.

"Aww, baby cheeks!" Trio teased. Duo blushed a little more. "Well, I guess I'd better go. Call me when you can, ok?"

"Yeah, sure. I won't be able to call you at all during the mission, but I'll try to drop you an e-mail every so often. When you get a call from Hilde, it means I'm at her house and I'm ok. Now, you do know how to pilot ships and mobile suits and stuff like that, in case anything...happens?"

"Yeah yeah. I can do all that. I mean come on! My brother was a Gundam Pilot, do you think I wouldn't have learned how to pilot a mobile suit?"

"Oh yeah," Duo said, and wrapped Trio in yet another one of his bear hugs. "Good luck! You might need it..."

"Don't worry, I'm a good actress," Trio said, slowly walking towards the shuttle. "I love you, be careful!"

"Love you too! Bye!" Duo replied and waved. After the shuttle took off, he turned to leave for his mission.

* * *

Hehe, the Duo-has-a-secret-twin-sister-named-Trio fic! Actually, I really like this one, so I don't have anything terribly bad to say about it. :)

-Maxine


	2. Chapter 1

While You Were Gone - Chapter 1

* * *

Trio sighed as she flew through space back to Quatre's mansion. Truth be told, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to act like Duo for two months.

'Maybe he'll cut his vacation short...' she thought. 'Yeah right.' Though Duo had known the other pilots for three years now, Trio had never met them. They didn't even know Duo had a sister. Trio wasn't sure why he had never mentioned her, but then again, she never told anyone that the infamous Gundam Pilot 02 was her brother either, though she often got funny looks from people, especially when OZ had captured him during the war. Taking one last deep breath, Trio said to herself, "Well, here goes." With that, Trio punched the intercom button in the shuttle before she could change her mind, dropped her voice a notch, and spoke.

"Yo! Guys! Hellloooo? Anyone there? I'm ready to land this thing."

"Duo!" Quatre's voice crackled over the intercom. "It's about time, we haven't heard from you in hours."

"Did you complete your mission?" said a flat, monotonous voice that Trio could guess was Heero's.

"Well!" Trio started, trying to imagine what Duo would say. It wasn't too difficult. "Thanks for saying 'hi'! You know, you could sound a little happy to hear from me. For all you know I could've gotten shot down or-"

"Did you complete your mission?" Heero asked again.

'Geez,' thought Trio. 'This guy's worse than Duo said. Mr. No Personality.' "Duh! Would I have come back if it wasn't completed? It was a piece of cake! No problem for the all mighty Shinigami."

"Hn," came the reply.

"Yeah well anyway, I'm landing now, so could you like, get things ready for my...landing?"

"Yeah, sure Duo. See you in a few," Quatre said, before signing off.

'Well, at least I know I can imitate Duo's voice. I guess that's a good sign. Hopefully Duo and I look as much alike as he says we do...' The shuttle finally landed, and Trio opened the door, wondering if all four of the others would be there. 'Apparently not,' she noticed. Only Quatre and Heero stood there, not that it really mattered. Taking a deep breath, Trio walked down the platform. "Luuucy! I'm hoooome!" Trio called out. 'Hey, this is pretty easy, it might actually be fun,' she thought.

"Welcome back, Duo!" Quatre greeted as Trio walked down the stairs. All was going well so far, they didn't seem to notice anything different. "We had the cooks prepare dinner so it would be done by the time you got back."

"Good, 'cause I'm starving." Quatre laughed.

"When aren't you?" he asked. Trio smiled. Quatre was pretty cute, and she'd always had a thing for blondes.

'Alrighty, better not hang out around him to much, or I'll be finding it hard to keep acting like a guy, or a straight guy anyway.' "Ok then, I'll just go wash up, and then I'll come eat."

"Wash up?" both Quatre and Heero asked, stopping in their tracks. "Since when have you 'washed up' before eating," Heero asked. Trio winced inwardly.

"Ahh, well actually I have to go to the bathroom, I could have just announced that if you wanted me to."

"Nothing's ever stopped you before."

"Yeah whatever. Look, I'll be right down," Trio said, and then walked off quickly towards the house. 'Ok, mistake number one,' Trio thought. 'Duo obviously does not 'wash up' before dinnertime. Ugh, that's so disgusting. Oh well, I better get used to it.' Trio was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice that there was another person walking around the corner she was turning, and she ran right into him. She was a little shorter, and had run smack into a well-toned chest beneath a familiar green turtleneck, causing her to, with no grace what-so-ever, topple backwards and land on her butt on the wooden floor. "Itai, did someone catch the number of that bus?" she murmured before looking up into startling green eyes. Well, it was more like a startling green eye, because the other one was obscured by long brown bangs. 'Ah, this must be Trowa...how the hell does he get his hair to stay like that?' Trio thought to herself, unaware that she was still staring at the silent boy standing above. He finally spoke.

"Duo." Ok, so he said one word. Trio waited for more, but he obviously wasn't going to open his mouth again.

'Alright, when in doubt, do what you think Duo would do.' She waited for a few more seconds, before speaking. "Trowa." A few more minutes passed with them staring into each other's eyes, when Trowa blinked suddenly, giving Trio an idea. "I win!" she declared. Trowa smirked.

"I was getting bored."

'Oh wow, it worked. At least I know something else Duo and I have in common: a thing for staring contests.'

"I didn't know you were back," Trowa stated, offering a hand to Trio who accepted and pulled herself up.

"Yeah, I just got back," she said, flashing him a smile that matched Duo's. "Dinner's ready by the way, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna go eat!" Trio turned away, and walked back the way she came towards the dining room, totally forgetting about going to "wash up." Trowa watched "Duo" walk down the hall. There was something a little different, but he couldn't quite place it. Pushing the thought aside, Trowa followed Trio to the dining room.

'Holy crap,' thought Trio as she walked down the hall, peeking into each room along the way. 'This mansion is bigger than I had ever imagined. Thank God Duo gave me that map to memorize...Ok, I turn left here, and the dining room should be on my right...yes! Found it.' "Have no fear! Shinigami is here! We can eat now, since the important person has made his entrance," Trio announced, as she walked into the room. Quatre looked up from his conversation with Heero, and simply smiled. Obviously this type of thing happened often.

"Maxwell," grumbled Wufei. "Would you sit down already! We've been waiting long enough." Trio smiled as she observed the Chinese boy across from her. Black hair pulled back into a short ponytail, a scowl on his face...yep, this was definitely Wufei.

'The one I get to annoy. Hehehe.' "Hey Wu-man! You know you could have just eaten something else; you didn't HAVE to wait for me. Though I know it always makes a difference at the dinner table when I grace you with my presence."

"It makes a difference alright. It causes us all too eat less in a short amount of time so we can get away from the disgusting act you think is 'eating.' And do not call me that!"

"Geez, you really need to get that stick that you sat on about five years ago out of your-"

"Duo!" shouted Quatre, as Wufei jumped out of his seat and next to him Heero snickered. Trio smiled semi-sheepishly and flashed Quatre a peace sign.

"Don't worry, I'll stop."

"Wufei, sit down," commanded Quatre, once again being the peacemaker. Reluctantly, Wufei sat, mumbling about injustices and braided bakas. Trio sat down and picked up her fork. She actually wasn't that hungry. Absentmindedly, she began swirling her food around with her fork, every so often lifting some to her mouth.

'I wonder...if I started a food fight, would Quatre get angry? Duh, I would. This place is too nice to do that. This is the perfect food though...green peas, mashed potatoes, hell yeah. I won't though...I bet Duo would...' Trio picked up the spoon that was next to her plate, for no apparent reason by the way, since there was nothing to eat with a spoon, and she loaded some peas onto it. 'To throw, or not to throw...' she thought, and looked toward Heero, who was too busy eating to notice anything unusual. Trowa, however, did notice.

"Duo," he whispered, in a semi-warning tone. Trio shoved the peas into her mouth, grimacing when she remembered that she really did not like peas, and put on an innocent face.

"Hmm?" she questioned, swallowing. "What?" Trowa sighed.

"Nothing, never mind." Wufei looked up and towards Trio, who was once again loading peas onto her spoon. Wufei smirked, and nonchalantly scooped up some potatoes.

'Man, I have a serious urge to fling these at him,' Trio thought, looking back towards Heero. 'He looks like he could use something to change that expression on his face. Though it would probably just change from indifferent to pissed-off and angry. That'd be worth it though, or would it? This guy's a killing machine. Hm...I wonder if Heero can even change facial expressions, his face is probably frozen like that...well, it's now or never...here goes.' Trio took a deep breath, and flung the peas across the table at Heero, making a little "whoosh" sound as they flew threw the air. In the split second that Heero eyes widened and then narrowed in anger as the peas hit him, a splat was heard that caused Heero to not yell at Trio. Halfway out of his seat, and mouth open to scream at her, Heero froze, and watched Trio's expression of bewilderment with enjoyment. Obviously she had not been expecting that. Heero looked across to Wufei who was still holding his fork, smirking, and had a smug "who's the man?" look on his face. Trowa was also smirking, and Quatre looked horrified.

Trio reached up to the side up her face, and slowly wiped the potatoes off. 'Why that little...' she thought, looking over to Wufei who still had a triumphant look on. About two seconds later, Trio was wearing the triumphant look, and Wufei looked downright shocked with mashed potatoes and gravy all down the front of his shirt.

"Just remember Maxwell," Wufei growled, as he loaded his spoon with anything from his plate, "that you were the one who started this." Trio ducked his onslaught of food, causing it to splatter on the wall behind her, before jumping back up and sticking her tongue out at him.

"Ha ha! You missed me-ahh!" Trio shouted, as she got attacked from the side by handful of pasta salad. Trio turned to throw a clump of meatloaf at Heero, but totally missed and hit Trowa instead. (A/N: Isn't it amazing how you always miss the person your aiming for in food fights?) Trowa's eyes widened and then narrowed quickly. Using his spoon as a catapult, he was about to fling the food at Trio, when he suddenly turned and hit the unsuspecting Wufei on the forehead.

"Barton," Wufei growled, and a four-way food fight started, with Quatre sitting in the middle of it all with a look of shock on his face. Finally coming to his senses, Quatre looked around at the mess the others were making of his dining room.

"Uh, guys?" he said meekly. They didn't hear him. He tried a little louder. "Guys, could you please stop! You're really making a mess of things..." They still paid him no heed. Once more he spoke, "Guys..." Finally getting fed up, Quatre shouted, "GUYS!" The others froze where they were. Trio was straddling Trowa who had been pushed to the ground, and was about to shove potatoes into his hair, and above them Wufei and Heero were just getting ready to hurl various foods at Trio. They all looked towards Quatre with wide eyes. Now that he had their attention, he didn't know what to say. Sighing, Quatre looked around the room, and then back to Trio and smiled a little. "Welcome back Duo," he said, and then followed up with, "You guys are so cleaning this up. I wouldn't make the maids pick up such a mess. Well, don't just stare at me, you all have kitchen duty!" Four groans were heard. "Hurry up!" Trio got off of Trowa, but not before shoving the potatoes into his hair.

It took them about two hours to clean up the mess. Every so often someone would fling food at someone else, and then everything would start up again, leaving a bigger mess to clean.

"This is all your fault, Maxwell," grumbled Wufei from his position on the floor where he was trying to scrub some food off.

"My fault! How is it MY fault?" Wufei looked at her.

"Well, since you've already forgotten, you threw food at Heero first."

"Yeah, but you didn't waste anytime hitting me, and I didn't even do anything to you."

"Just think of it as payback for when you put honey into my shampoo."

'Honey?' thought Trio. 'Wow, didn't think Duo had it in him.' "That was ages ago Wu-man."

"It was last week Duo," stated Trowa, looking at Trio oddly.

"...Oh yeah," Trio said, smiling sheepishly. "Well, I think we're done," she said quickly, and tossed her sponge into the bucket.

"Duo, we haven't even started over there yet," said Heero, gesturing towards the opposite side of the room. Trio looked towards the area he pointed at.

"Aw, that side looks fine to me. If you think it's dirty, then YOU can clean it up."

"Maxwell, Quatre would not like it if we leave he's dining room in the mess it's in," Wufei said, sitting back on his heels.

"Well, he doesn't have to find out about it."

"Oh? And just how do you plan on hiding it from him?" Trowa asked.

"We won't hide it, we'll just have the maids clean it up. They'll notice it's a mess, and then clean it without being told to," Trio stated, and then started walking out of the room. "I'm done. If you guys wanna keep cleaning it, then go ahead. And have fun!" Trowa, Heero, and Wufei all watched Trio walk out of the room, looked at each other, and got up and followed her out.

Trio walked down the one of the many hallways in the Winner Mansion that she was pretty sure lead to Duo's room. Turning another corner, she found herself next to a door that had a picture of a skull and crossbones, and various signs around it. One of them simply stated that this was Shinigami's room. Another said, "Do not enter, if you value your life..." Beneath that and in parenthesis was a sign that said, "Seriously, you never know what might fall on you, or you could pass out from the fumes, or you might even get lost, and never find your way out, etc." Trio chuckled. This was definitely Duo's room. She only hoped it wasn't as bad as his door made it out to be. Cautiously, Trio opened the door and stepped into the room. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Duo's room was...clean. Aside from a few shirts scattered about, and the unorganized clutter around his laptop on the desk, the room was pretty much cleaned. The bed was made, the furniture dusted, and Trio was pretty much shocked. She had always known her brother as a messy, unorganized... mess, basically. When had he changed? Looking around the room, her eyes landed on the bad, which looked very inviting at the moment, and the piece of paper that was on it. Walking over, Trio picked it up, and began to read. She read as far as the first two lines, and smiled. Well that explained things. Trio kept on reading.

_Dear Trio,_

_Ok, before you have a heart attack or something, let me tell you that my room is NOT always this clean. I did this especially for you, so that you wouldn't have to live in my room that everyone else refers to as a "garbage pile." I spent hours on end cleaning this place, so you'd better appreciate it! Actually it wasn't too hard; some of the maids helped me. :) _

_Anyhoo, the reason I'm writing this is too give you some pointers on how too act as ME. It shouldn't be too difficult. There are enough clothes in my closet for you to wear, and they should all fit you. Your hair always stays in a braid! Unless you're sleeping or something, and even then it has to be put back into a braid when you go downstairs. I usually wake up late, well, I don't consider it late, but everyone else is up a while before me. I get up anywhere from 9-10 a.m. You don't actually need to get dressed until like 12 or something, unless something important is going on that day. Use the shampoo that I have in the bathroom, not any flower or fruity stuff that you might have. _

_It's really not that hard to be me I guess. I'm trying to think of more to tell you. I do eat a lot. That might be hard for you. We exercise a lot though. Quatre's got his own personal gym thingy. I think you're in good shape, so anything you do shouldn't seem to weird. Ok, now for some tips on the other guys. First off, you must constantly annoy Heero and Wufei. They'll probably threaten to kill you a few times, but they never will. You'll just have to get used to their threats. You can't back down from Heero's "death glare" either, and you'll see what I mean by that when he uses it on you, and he will. When he does, you'll know that you did something right as me. If you do something that really annoys him, he might even start to strangle you. Don't get alarmed though. None of the others would ever actually hurt you. They'll go for your braid a lot though, especially Heero, and Wufei likes to threaten to cut it off with his katana, so watch out for that. Back to the strangling thing. Heero often does this when you make fun of him and Relena. They aren't going out or anything, though everyone knows Relena would love it if they did, but he is very sensitive about her. Oh, and speaking of Relena, whenever you see her, you have to give her a big bear hug, as awkward as that may be for you. It's just something that I've always done. _

_Ok, let's see. Always call Wufei Wu-man. He likes to make fun of women a lot, so don't let that get to you. Trowa's usually quiet. He and I tend to have a lot of staring contests, simply because he usually wins and it annoys me. Quatre's cool, he's nice and all; doesn't really like fighting and what not. I guess that's all. If you happen to meet anyone new, though I don't know who that would be, introduce yourself as Duo Maxwell, and say, "I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie." If you see Zechs and Noin, just call them...Zechs and Noin. And try to annoy Zechs a little, but not too much. Ok then, when Hilde calls you, it means I'm at her house and I'm ok. You might want to go somewhere by yourself when she calls if you want to talk to me. I'll try to send you an email every so often until then._

_That's it now, seriously. Good luck on any missions that might come up. Actually, good luck with everything. I hope you don't fall in love with any of the guys or something, because that would look really weird. (just kidding) See ya later!_

_Love you,_

_Duo, aka SHINIGAMI!_

Trio scanned the letter over once more. Well, none of that seemed too difficult. She read the last few lines. 'Fall in love with one of the guys? Suuuure,' she thought. 'That would be kind of funny though. I doubt Duo would think so. He certainly wouldn't appreciate being known as gay, when he's not. Well that was nice of him to write this letter.' With that last thought, Trio put the letter into a drawer in the nightstand by her bed, and got ready to go to sleep.

* * *

Hum-de-dum... lol, see?Nothing to say!

-Maxine


	3. Chapter 2

While You Were Gone - Chapter 2

* * *

It was a beautiful day the next morning. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and there were no clouds in the sky. It was such a nice morning, in fact, that Wufei and Trowa had both decided to stay in bed longer than usual, just enjoying the peace. Heero, however, hardly ever woke up late, so he was already downstairs typing away on his laptop. Quatre was also up, and he too was downstairs heading towards the kitchen to get some coffee. Unfortunately, you had to walk through the dining to get to the kitchen. So, it WOULD have been the perfect morning, if an ear-splitting scream had not sounded through the air.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Quatre screamed as his trip to the kitchen came to an abrupt stop. "HEERO, TROWA, WUFEI, AND DUO! GET YOUR SORRY BUTTS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" From where he was, Heero sighed and shut down his computer.

'I knew we should have finished cleaning the dining room,' he thought, as he slowly walked towards the said room. Upstairs, two loud thuds were heard as both Trowa and Wufei rolled, or fell, out of bed.

"Ugh, shit." Wufei muttered, rubbing his head. He looked back up at the bed from his position on the floor, and then towards the door. "What the hell?" Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a very disheveled Trowa.

"Wufei," he panted. "We have to go downstairs NOW. Quatre's on a warpath. I think he noticed that we never finished cleaning the dining room."

"Well you could have knocked y'know," Wufei stated, looking up at Trowa. Suddenly he started laughing, and Trowa gave him an odd look that only made him laugh harder.

"What?" Trowa asked warily.

"HAHA! Yo-your hair! It looks so f-funny! HAHAHA!" Trowa reached up to feel the front of his hair, only to find out that it was indeed sticking up and out all over the place.

"So, I sleep on my stomach," he admitted sheepishly. "And I didn't have time to brush it down. Besides, yours doesn't look much better." Wufei stopped laughing and grabbed a hair holder from off the top of his dresser. As he attempted to put his hair into a half-hazard ponytail, both he and Trowa heard another scream from downstairs.

"DUO, TROWA, AND WUFEI! HURRY UP!" Trowa dashed out the door with Wufei following him.

"You go downstairs. I'm going to go make sure Duo is up," Trowa said to Wufei, who nodded. Trowa went to Duo's room, and knocked on the door. Why he was knocking, he didn't know, seeing as he had just barged into Wufei's room. A very grumpy looking Duo answered the door.

"What?" Trio growled, her hair flaring out behind her. She hadn't had the time to put it into a braid yet. Trowa stood there and stared at her for a while, before shaking his head slightly.

"Quatre wants us downstairs."

"So I heard. He yelled loud enough to wake the dead." She pointed to herself. "Or at least the God of them. Now go away. I refuse to go down there with my hair like this." Trio now pointed to her hair.

"You sleep with your hair out of the braid?" Trowa asked, as if it had just occurred to him. Trio looked at him funny.

"Sometimes. However, I NEVER leave my room like this. I'll be down in five minutes." With that, she practically slammed the door in his face, leaving a bewildered Trowa out in the hall. He stared at the door for a while before turning to walk downstairs. Inside her room, Trio walked around grumbling to herself while braiding her hair.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why now? Of all times, I get it the first full day I'm here! It couldn't have come in like, two days or something. Noooooo, it comes in less then twenty-four hours. DAMN IT!" Trio fastened the end of her braid and looked at herself in the mirror. "I guess I do look a lot like Duo. Duh, I'm his twin. :sigh: I hope they don't notice anything different, mood swings especially," she said, walking out of her room to go face a Quatre who was acting like he was on the Zero-system or something.

By the time she reached the dining room, the others were already on their hands and knees scrubbing the side of the room they hadn't bothered to clean the night before. Trio walked into the room ignoring the waves and winks she was getting from some of the maids that were in the kitchen. Her brother was obviously a ladies' man. Trio knew she should be trying to act more like Duo, but hell, as early as it was, she figured he would probably be grumpy anyway. She was too busy thinking about acting like Duo that she didn't notice the sponge being thrown at her until it hit her in the face.

"Start scrubbing," Quatre ordered. Apparently he was playing overseer of the four workers. Grumbling some nonsense about it being too early and not having any coffee, Trio pretty much collapsed onto the floor. One of her hands moved slowly across the floor with the sponge, and the other rose up to cover her mouth as she yawned. All thoughts of being tired abruptly left her mind as she found herself suddenly drenched in freezing cold water.

"Shit!" Trio exclaimed as she sat up and looked around to find the culprit who had dumped water on her. She discovered Quatre standing above her still holding a bucket, and immediately glared at him. "What the hell was that?" she screamed at him.

"You looked a little tired, so I decided to wake you up," Quatre said innocently.

'Ok, I take back anything I ever thought or said about blonde guys,' Trio thought to herself, as she looked at the others who were laughing at her expense. 'I hate them! All blondes suck! I think I'm suddenly going to become a brunette lover.'

Almost an hour later, Quatre decided that the dining room finally met his standards, and the five teens sat down for breakfast. It was towards the end of the meal that Trio heard the one question she had never expected to be asked, and it almost caused her to choke on her food.

"Hey Quatre," Trowa said, looking across the table at the blonde. "Isn't your pool open by now? We can swim in it, right?"

"Yeah," Wufei added. "Maxwell over here," he jabbed a thumb in Trio's direction, who, by the way, currently had forgotten to swallow the food in her mouth and was staring wide-eyed at nothing, "asked you about it before he left on that mission, and you said it'd be ready when he got back. I'm surprised you didn't ask about it last night," Wufei finished, looking at the bewildered Trio.

"Um," Trio finally remembered to swallow, "Yeah, well, I was tired. I'd almost forgotten about it." 'Oh shit! Please don't tell me they want to go swimming! This is just NOT my day,' she continued silently.

"Well it IS open now," Quatre said, looking around the table. "So do you all want to go swimming?"

"Sure, why not?" Wufei replied, standing up from the table. Trowa followed suit.

"I'll go change," he said as he walked out of the room.

"Yeah, sure, greeeaaat idea," Trio mumbled, as she too got up out of her seat.

"Are you ok Duo?" Quatre asked, concerned as always.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just didn't get my full-"

"Twenty hours of sleep?" Heero asked, as he brushed past Trio. She smirked him.

"Yeah, twenty hours of sleep, whatever you say Heero. Anyway, and then I was awakened in a most unpleasant way," Trio glared at Quatre who smiled apologetically. "But I'm fine," she continued, waving her hand dismissively. "So, I'll just go change. Meet ya out at the pool!" With that, she walked out of the room and then dashed to her bedroom in record time. As soon as the door was locked, Trio began her worrying streak.

"Aw, crap! Now what? I'll just have to wear a shirt over Duo's bathing suit. Maybe I can pretend I'm still tired from the mission and then waking up early, and then they won't expect me to actually get in the water. Of course, I'll have to explain the reason I'm wearing a shirt...I'll just say that I...burn easily! Yeah! That'll work...maybe. ARGH! Damn it! Not my day, not at all. Ya know, you'd think Duo would think about stuff like this before hand. I mean he KNEW I would be here, yet he STILL asks if Quatre can get the pool ready." By this point, Trio had found Duo's bathing suit, and was searching around in her own bag that she brought from home for some more tape for her chest. Flinging stuff carelessly around, she finally emerged triumphant. "Aha! Found it!" she exclaimed in a singsong voice. She nearly jumped out of skin when she heard the knocking on her door. Shoving the tape back into the bag, and forgetting about the other stuff she had tossed around the room, Trio casually walked over and opened the door. Again, she jumped, but this time backwards into the room as she saw who was standing in the doorway. Standing in the doorway, and giving her a VERY weird look.

'Ok, Trio,' she thought. 'Pull yourself together. You're never going to last two months at this rate.' Taking a deep breath, Trio straightened her shoulders, smiled in that way that only Duo can (well, his sister apparently can too), and turned to the boy in the doorway. Heero. A very scantily dressed Heero. 'Well, not for the occasion,' Trio reminded herself. He was dressed in a pair of red and black swim trunks, and only that. No shirt or towel or anything. Trio was suddenly finding it difficult to keep her eyes on his face, as they wanted to travel lower and take in his very well muscled form.

"Oi! Heero! What can I do for you?" Trio asked, stepping further into the room so Heero could come in. Heero looked around the room briefly before his eyes landed on Trio again.

"I was walking by and I heard you talking to yourself, AGAIN," Heero said in annoyance, crossing his arms. Trio blinked.

'He talks to himself?' Shaking her head slightly, Trio asked, "Geez! I don't talk to myself THAT much do I?"

"You have been lately," was the reply. Heero eyed her again. "You haven't changed yet?"

"Well I couldn't be rude and interrupt the conversation just to change," Trio said as if the answer was obvious. Heero rolled his eyes. They landed on Trio again for a brief second, before darting back towards the bed. Uncrossing his arms, Heero walked over and looked down at something. Trio panicked. 'Aw crap! What did he find? What did I toss out of my bag?' she wondered. Her silent question was answered when Heero turned back around, dangling an article of clothing from one finger.

Eyebrow raised, he asked, "Care to explain?" Trio paled, and then immediately blushed. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words could be formed.

"Uuuhhhhhh," was the only sound that emerged from Trio's mouth as she stared at the black lace bra that Heero was holding. 'Ok, why the hell did I bring THAT with me!'

"Did you stop by Hilde's on the way back again?" Heero smirked, clearly enjoying the braided teen's discomfort. Trio relaxed, and sheepishly brought a hand up to scratch the back of her head.

'Ugh, mental pictures.' "Uh, yeah, I did actually," Trio said, smiling lightly. Heero dropped the bra back onto the bed.

"Well that would explain why we couldn't contact you for a while." He turned towards the door. "Hurry up, we'll be down at the pool. Tell your 'imaginary friend' you'll have to continue your conversation later." Trio gawked at his retreating back.

"Yeah, ok," she mumbled, closing the door as he left. After a few minutes, she shook her head and headed over to the dresser. She pulled out a random white T-shirt and was in the process of pulling it over her head when she stopped. "Ok, bad idea," she mumbled. "Definitely wear a black shirt in case they throw you in or something."

Several minutes later, Trio walked out onto the patio. The four that were already out there stopped whatever they were doing and looked at her.

"Took you long enough," Wufei grumbled. "I swear, you're a slow as a woman sometimes." Trio clenched her fists and gave him a tight-lipped smile.

"Like you would know," she replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wufei asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I mean it's not like you ever go out, so you've never had to wait for a woman before. How do you know how slow they are?"

"I go out!" Wufei replied indignantly.

"Oh yeah? When was the last time you went on a date? Huh?" 'Please don't say it was like last week or something,' Trio prayed silently. Wufei sputtered angrily and looked towards Quatre, as if he was supposed to know. The blonde raised his hands defensively.

"It has been a while, Wufei," Quatre said quietly.

"Well, I've been busy," Wufei growled. Then, changing the subject quickly, he asked Trio, "What's with the shirt?" She looked down at it briefly.

"Well, I'm kinda tired still, so I wasn't planning on actually swimming much today, and I burn easily, so I put a shirt on," she answered.

"Duo, black ATTRACTS the sun," Trowa stated. Trio could have smacked herself. "You should have worn a white one, like him," he finished, pointing at Quatre. Trio looked at Quatre questioningly.

"Are you sure you're Arabian?" she asked the blonde haired boy. Quatre's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, I'm positive," he replied tightly. Trio shrugged and sat down in a lawn chair.

"Well, I'll just be resting here, in case any of y'all need me," she said, propping her feet up on another chair. Trio watched the others for a while. Wufei hadn't gotten in the water yet and was sitting opposite from her. He looked as if he was meditating or something, but Trio wasn't quite sure. Her attention suddenly focused on Trowa, watching as he jumped off the diving board, twisting his body gracefully in the air before disappearing beneath the water without a splash. Next to the diving board, Heero snorted and muttered something about him being a showoff before doing his own cannonball into the pool. Quatre came over and sat next to Trio, still rubbing sunscreen on his arms.

"Are you going to go in at all?" Quatre asked, lying back on the chair. Trio looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Maybe later," she replied, crossing her arms behind her head. She sighed, letting the artificial sunlight bathe her, and wishing that could be stretched out in her bikini. She was going to have a hell of a weird tan after today.

Some time later, Trio opened her eyes and blinked wearily into the sunlight. It took her a while to remember where she was. Sitting up, she looked around. It had gotten very quiet, and the others were nowhere to be seen. Had they just left her out there?

"Huh," Trio mumbled under breath. "Men." Suddenly she was jerked backwards as both her hands were grabbed and pulled out to the side. Snapping her head to the side, Trio's eyes widened as she looked into Wufei's eyes that were glinting mischievously.

"Payback time, Maxwell," he stated. Trio's eyes widened even more as Trowa and Heero came into view and grabbed her legs.

"Care to go for a swim?" Heero asked.

"Nonononono. Guys! Stop stop stop! Please? Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?" Trio pleaded pathetically as she started struggling in the four boys grasps. They only laughed and lifted her up off the chair. Carrying her over to the edge of the pool, the former pilots proceeded to toss her unceremoniously into the water. Trio gasped as she hit the cold water, which was a big contrast to the hot air. A second later she was hanging onto the wall of the pool, coughing, sputtering, and glaring at the four boys standing triumphantly above her. "I can't BELIEVE you guys just did that!" she yelled. Wufei bent down so that his face was mere inches in front of hers.

"Got ya!" he said, causing Trio's eyes to narrow.

"Got you my ass," she replied, grabbing the Chinese boy's arm before he could stand up again, and yanking him down into the pool next to her, getting a cry of "Injustice!" in return. "Ha! Never mess with the almighty Shinigami!" Trio announced, propping herself up on the side of the pool. She sat there dangling her feet in the water, ignoring the glare she was getting from Wufei, and started wringing out her shirt. "Christ guys! Now I'm gonna have to go wash my hair again," Trio mumbled. "Let go of my foot, Wu-man," she continued, kicking at Wufei who was tugging on her foot.

"Just for calling me that," Wufei replied, pulling harder on her leg, "I'm going to have to pull you back in here!" Trio suddenly found herself back in the water and holding onto the wall so she couldn't be pulled all the way under.

"Argh! Wufei, stop!" The insistent pulling of her leg stopped, and Trio relaxed slightly against the wall. Her eyes widened as a pair of hands suddenly started moving up and down her sides. Behind her, Wufei smirked as Trio tried to keep her grip on the wall without laughing. He started tickling her harder. "Ah...Wu-Wufei, s-s-s-stop! HAHAHA! P-Please! Hehe, I...I c-can't, HAHAHA, b-breathe!"

Reality kicked in when Trio's shirt started floating up around her, and she abruptly yanked herself away from Wufei's hands and pushed the shirt back down. The others hadn't noticed anything, apparently, because Trio found herself being dunked under the water from behind. She allowed herself to be pushed under, and then dislodged herself from the hands and settled at the bottom of the pool. She peered up through the water, discovering that it was Heero who had attacked her from behind. Moving so that she was behind him, Trio shot up from the bottom of the pool. As she emerged from the water, she wasted no time putting her hands on Heero's shoulders and pushing him under.

Looking up, Trio found Wufei still floating not too far away from her, and Trowa and Quatre sitting at the edge of the pool. "NO ONE messes with Shinigami," she said, smiling evilly. The others just shook their heads, smiling slightly.

"I think he might need some air soon," Wufei stated, pointing at the Japanese boy who was still struggling in Trio's grip.

'Wow, I can actually hold him under,' Trio thought briefly. Out loud, she said, "Oops," and abruptly released her grip on Heero. He shot out of the water coughing and gasping for air, before turning to glare at Trio. She only smiled and waved her fingers in front of his face, the glare not affecting her at all. "You did it to me too," she stated.

"Yeah," he said after a minute, "And I'll do it again!" Heero reached for Trio, who jerked out of the way and swam quickly over to Wufei.

"Nuh-uh," Wufei said, shoving Trio away from him. "It's every man for himself!" Trio yelped, and swam away from Wufei who had also reached out to try and dunk her. It took a lot of effort to keep her voice low so she wouldn't be screaming high-pitched. Jumping out of the pool, Trio walked over towards Quatre and Trowa who had been watching the whole scene quietly. They were both too trusting, she decided, as neither tried to move away when Trio walked behind them...and shoved them both into the water.

Quatre emerged from the water, and looked at Trio through wide eyes. "Duo!" he scolded slightly. Trio shook her head and pointed at Wufei.

"He said every man for himself!" she said. Both Quatre and Trowa turned on the poor boy who suddenly found himself trapped in a corner. Before they could do anything, they were distracted by big splash from the other end of the pool. Heero stood staring over the edge at a braided figure in the water.

Looking up, Heero said, "He forgot about me," and then smirked. What followed was an all out water war, as Trio decided to leave Heero for a minute and dunk an unsuspecting Quatre from behind. The game continued for quite some time like this. Trio found herself being held under by Trowa when one of the cooks came out and asked what time dinner should be served. No one had realized it, but they had been outside all day. Trowa let Trio up for air. As she coughed and gasped, she unconsciously leaned backwards against Trowa, pushing him up against the wall behind them.

"What are we having?" Trio asked the cook after she recovered.

"Chicken, tonight," the cook replied, turning to walk back into the mansion. Trio nodded, and shifted against Trowa who still had his hands on her shoulders.

"Uh, D-Duo?" the green eyed teen said, frantically trying to push Trio away from him. Trio eyes widened.

"Oh geez, sorry!" she exclaimed, pushing away from him. She turned to face Trowa, but he had already climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel off one of the chairs. He had a startled look on his face, which confused Trio a little.

"Ah, no-no problem. I'm just gonna go take a shower before dinner," Trowa said, quickly walking back inside.

"That's a good idea," Quatre stated, climbing out of the pool. He didn't seem affected by Trowa's weird behavior. Wufei swam up next to Trio.

"Was he acting weird? Or was it just me?" Trio asked him, still staring at the door. Wufei looked at her quizzically.

"Who? Trowa?" Trio nodded. Wufei looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah, he did seem...shocked by something. Actually, I think he was...blushing? Maybe it was just sunburn though."

"Hmm..." Wufei looked over at Trio.

"You're still wearing that shirt?"

"Well, no one ever gave me time to take it off." Wufei smirked.

"Oh yeah."

"Are you two coming?" Heero asked, toweling himself off in the doorway.

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming," Trio said. Wufei pulled her back by her braid and pushed her under the water once more.

"I win!" he declared, climbing out of the pool before Trio could retaliate. All she could do was glare at his back.

& & & &

Trowa stood in the shower, letting the cold water run over his body. 'Omigosh,' he thought, bracing himself against the wall. 'What the hell happened out there? What was I thinking?' Trowa ran over what had happened in his head. One second, Duo had been leaning back against him, a little too close for comfort, and the next second, Trowa had... He looked down at himself and turned around to lean back against the shower's wall. 'But...but, Duo? I mean...that's another...GUY. Male, man, boy...definitely NOT female.' Trowa had never considered himself gay (A/N: sorry yaoi fans), but ever since Duo had come back...there was something different about that braided baka. And whatever it was, it was affecting Trowa in ways he didn't like. 'Duo has a girlfriend though,' Trowa reminded himself. His eyes widened. 'Whoa! Am I telling myself he's not available? What the hell!'

Trowa sighed and punched the wall next to him. "Damn it," he muttered, cradling the hand that had punched the wall. Sighing again, Trowa shut off the water and shivered. "I'll figure out what's different about him," he said, stepping out of the shower. He looked around, realizing that he didn't have clothes to change into since he had come straight from the pool. Wrapping a towel around his waste, Trowa opened the bathroom door...and came face to face with Trio, who had a hand raised to knock on the door.

"Duo!" he said, not expecting the braided boy to be standing there. Trio lowered her hand and looked Trowa over once. She brought her eyes back to his face and blushed slightly.

"Oi, Trowa, you ok man? You left the pool kinda fast," Trio said, staring into his visible eye.

"I'm fine," Trowa deadpanned. Trio raised an eyebrow.

"Trying to mimic Heero now?"

"No," Trowa said, still speaking in monotone.

"Well you're doing a good job of it," Trio mumbled, stepping out of the way so Trowa could walk by. However, the uni-banged boy just stayed in the doorway, staring at Trio. She shifted under his gaze. "I need to take a shower, and you know how long I take, so..." Trio gestured to the hallway. Trowa blinked and lowered his head, brushing past Trio quickly.

"Sorry," he mumbled, walking off towards his room. Trio watched him walk by.

'Ok, that was definitely a blush that just spread across his cheeks,' she thought to herself, staring at her image in the mirror. She sighed, and began undoing her braid. 'I've been here what, two days?' "Wonderful. I'm NEVER going to last," Trio told her image, and picked up her brush to get the tangles out of her long hair.

* * *

One more chapter to be posted tonight... 

-Maxine


	4. Chapter 3

While You Were Gone - Chapter 3

* * *

The next couple of days passed uneventfully. Trio found herself wondering how Duo survived around here. There was almost nothing exciting to do. Of course, when Trio thought about that, she figured the guys didn't find going to the mall and the movies exciting, which was what she was used to doing. Luckily, they didn't make swimming an everyday thing. Trio noticed that Quatre wasn't around often, because he had to run the Winner Corporation. Wufei worked part-time at the Preventor base located on the colony. She knew that Trowa used to be in the circus, but he hadn't been there recently, so she figured they must have been on vacation or something. Apparently Duo and Heero didn't have jobs, even though they often tagged along on Preventor missions anyway. Back on L2, Trio had had a job, but she'd hated having to wake up early for it. Now, she'd give anything to go back and talk with her friends there, and get paid, and actually have something to do.

Sighing, Trio flung her arms above her head and stretched out her whole body. She picked up the remote control and idly began flipping threw the channels. Just her luck; there wasn't even anything good on T.V. She finally settled for early morning cartoons. She was watching some guy with weird hair beat the crap out of a purple and white alien, when Heero walked into the room. He glanced at the T.V. and raised an eyebrow.

"WHAT are you watching?" he asked, looking at Trio for an answer.

"DragonBall Z," Trio replied dully.

"...Okaaay... I'm gonna go to the scrap shop, wanna come?" Heero asked. Trio smiled wryly. Now there was an idea: when you're bored, go to the scrap shop! Not exactly her idea of a good time...

"What for? The Gundams are gone, remember?" Heero shrugged.

"I've got nothing better to do."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Trio said. "I think I'll be lazy and lie around all day."

"What else is new?"

"Hey!" Trio replied defensively. Heero chuckled.

"Trowa's in his room, reading or something," he said, walking out of the room. "Be back in a few." Trio watched him leave.

"Trowa's still here, huh?" she said to herself. "I do believe that boy's been avoiding me. Or maybe he's always anti-social... oh well." Trio turned the T.V. off and stood up. "Time to go be annoying," she announced joyfully. She made her way to Trowa's room, stopping in the kitchen to grab an apple. Running up the stairs, Trio pounded on Trowa's door. A muffled, "Come in," was heard, and Trio threw the door open.

"Duo," Trowa said in, Trio supposed, greeting. He hardly glanced at her before going back to his book.

"I am SOOOO BORED!" Trio whined, throwing herself on the bed next to the uni-banged boy.

"That's nice to know," Trowa said distantly. Trio glared at him until he finally noticed. "What? Am I supposed to cure you or something?"

"You could do something other than read," Trio grumbled.

"Like what did you have in mind?" Trio yanked the book out of his hands and flung it across the room. "Hey!" Trowa said, glaring at Trio.

"Sorry, you weren't paying attention to me," Trio stated, smiling widely.

"What do you want, Duo?" Trowa asked exasperatedly.

"I want to do something outside this damn mansion!" Trio complained, flipping onto her back.

"Well, Heero just left. Why didn't you go with him?" Trowa asked, getting up to retrieve his book. Trio raised an eyebrow at him.

"The boy went to the scrap shop. The SCRAP SHOP! I didn't even know there was one around here!" Trowa smirked at her. "Besides, that's not my idea of fun," she continued.

"Oh, and what fun thing did you have in mind?"

"Uh, well, I'm guessing going to the mall doesn't appeal to you?" Trowa looked at her oddly. "Just kidding! Geez. Actually, I hadn't thought of anything yet," Trio admitted sheepishly. "Come on!" she said suddenly, jumping off the bed. "Let's go walk around and find something to do." She was halfway out the door before she realized Trowa wasn't following her. "Do want me to drag you out?" Trio asked, putting her hands on her hips. Trowa sighed.

"Fine, let me change my shirt. It's too hot to go out in a turtle neck," he said, pulling his shirt off over his head. He walked over to his dresser, and Trio got the chance to observe his well-muscled, tan back. She barely even noticed when he turned around and pulled a baggy, sleeveless shirt over his head. "Ok, let's go," he said, walking towards her. It was then he noticed her semi-glazed expression. "Duo?" he called, waving his fingers in front of Trio's face. She shook her head slightly.

"Sorry, T-man," she said quickly. "I kinda spaced out for a minute there, you were taking so damn long..." she mumbled. Inside, she was berating herself for staring at him like that. The two finally made their way outside.

"So, where are we going?" Trowa asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his shorts. Trio shrugged, glancing around. She was steadily regretting that Duo always wore black. Even in a shorts and a T-shirt, she was dying, and it didn't help that the shorts kept slipping down too low. Suddenly her eyes lit up, spotting a building down the road.

"We're going there," she pointed. Trowa followed the line her finger made, and raised an eyebrow.

"The arcade?"

"Yep," Trio announced, already walking away. "Come on!" She grabbed Trowa's wrist and virtually pulled him down the sidewalk.

"I can walk on my own, you know,' Trowa said after a second.

"Yeah I know," Trio said, looking at him oddly.

"Then why don't you let go of my wrist?" he asked, pointed to her hand. Abruptly, she let go, and turned away so Trowa wouldn't she the blush she felt spread across her cheeks. 'What is wrong with me?' she wondered. 'Just calm down girl.'

Sometime later, Trio was kicking the crap out of Trowa in some martial arts battling game.

"Ha! Beat ya again! You suck at these games, Trowa," Trio stated. Trowa, for his part, was actually looking annoyed. Glancing around, he spotted a two-player game they hadn't tried yet.

"We haven't done the racing yet," Trowa said, already heading towards it. Trio smiled to herself and followed.

"You think that'll be any different?"

"Yeah, it's completely different from hand-to-hand combat. There's no 'special moves.'"

"Except for the turbo charge," Trio said joyfully. Trowa groaned. Five games later, Trowa finally admitted defeat.

"You suck," Trowa grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Correction, I'm actually very good," Trio said, stretching her arms above her head. Trowa "hmphed." "I am STARVING," Trio announced, quite over-dramatically. "Do you want a pizza?"

"We can always get something at home," Trowa suggested. Trio glanced at her watch.

"Nah, it's only 4:00. Quatre won't be home for another two hours. Let's just eat something here, and then we'll have dinner later on tonight." Trowa looked doubtful.

"How can you eat that much?" Trio blinked.

"I'll pay," she suggested, ignoring the question. Trowa gave in.

"Fine...you have money?"

"...Some," Trio admitted. Actually, she doubted Duo had any, but she sure did. So, Trio bought them a small pepperoni pizza and drinks, and the two sat at one of the tables in the dining area. Trowa ate slowly, using the time to observe the person in front of him. He was noticing more and more things that were different about him than usual. One, he was eating slowly. Two, he kept wiping his mouth off with his napkin, and not the back of his hand. Three, his hands looked softer than usual. Trowa blinked. Where did that come from? He'd never looked at Duo's hands before, so why would he now? And how did he know they were softer? He supposed they just LOOKED softer than they should for being a Gundam pilot, but who knew. Trio finally looked up, feeling the eyes that were focused on her.

"What?" she asked tentatively. She noticed the slight blush that spread over Trowa's face.

"Uh, nothing," he said quickly, returning to his half eaten pizza. Trio just raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "You've been awfully...quiet lately," Trowa finally said. Trio blinked.

"Believe it or not, I have nothing to say," she said. "Plus, I'm eating. I do have SOME manners, you know."

"Some," Trowa agreed. Trio glared at him and he chuckled.

"Watch yourself, bang boy."

"Bang boy? And just what do you have to back your words up with, braided baka?" Trowa asked amusedly. Trio huffed.

"Well, I could make one of those martial arts games come true and beat the crap out of you," Trio smirked.

"I doubt you could in real life."

"Is that a challenge?" Trio asked playfully.

"Nah, you know I could dodge everything by jumping and doing flips over your head. Circus skills come in handy," Trowa replied, sitting back.

"Whatever happened with the circus?" Trio asked. Trowa looked at her oddly.

"You know we take a month off from June to July," he said. Trio nodded and tried to make it look like she'd just remembered that.

"Oh yeeeaaah," she said, scratching her head. "I forgot." She looked at her watch. "It's past 4:30, we should go. Heero's gonna wonder where we went to." Trowa glanced up sharply.

"I forgot about Heero." Trio shrugged.

"Oops," she said dismissively. Trowa chuckled.

"Let's go."

They took their time going home. The colony air was finally cooling down, and there was a nice breeze blowing. Halfway back, Trio noticed a small, blonde headed girl sitting sadly next to a box. Tugging on Trowa's arm, Trio pulled him over to the girl.

"What've you got there?" she asked softly. The girl lifted up tear-stained eyes.

"Puppies," she mumbled, wiping her eyes. "Mommy says we can't afford to keep all of 'em, so I have to sell 'em for real cheap." Trio's eyes lit up, and Trowa noticed this.

"Duo," he warned quietly, but was ignored.

"How cheap?" Trio asked. She and Duo had had a puppy a long time ago back on L2. It'd been run over by an army truck, and she'd cried for days on end afterwards.

"I was starting at $5, but I'll sell 'em for even cheaper. I just want 'em to have a good home!" she said, her eyes filling up with tears again. Trio reached into her pocket and pulled out the first bill her hand landed on.

"How about $10?" she asked gently. Trowa's eyes widened.

"Duo, we can't bring home a puppy! It's Quatre's house, you'd have to at least ask," he said worriedly.

"Are you sure?" the little girl asked, ignoring Trowa. Her eyes were wide.

"Absolutely, positutely!" Trio announced cheerfully. The girl smiled.

"Thank you," she said, accepting the money. She gestured to the box. "Take your pick. You can even have two if you want."

"Really? Cool..." She kneeled down beside the box.

"No, Duo," Trowa said firmly. Trio pouted. She picked up a random puppy.

"But they're so cute, Trowa! Quatre won't mind us bringing home one!" Trowa looked at the puppy and sighed.

"I was saying no to TWO. I guess we could bring ONE home..." he said in defeat. After all, he did love animals. Trio smiled triumphantly, and looked at the puppy she'd picked up. She instantly fell in love with the white-spotted, brown pup.

"We're taking this one," she declared, not even looking at the others. She knew from experience that she'd only feel guilty if she looked at them all. Trowa nodded.

"That's Lilly," the girl said. "She has five spots on her back that look like a flower." Trio examined the puppy, and saw the spots.

"Cool," she said. "So it's a girl?" The blonde nodded. "How old are they?"

"Only three weeks. They're really young." Trio's brows furrowed in concern.

"That IS young," she agreed.

"We can take care of her," Trowa said, plucking the dog from Trio's hands. He held it up and let a smile cross his face. "She's cute." Trio nodded. "We need to go," Trowa said, holding the puppy against his chest. She snuggled into the warmth.

"Alrighty, bye!" Trio said, waving to the girl.

"Thank you!" the girl cried.

"No prob. Now come on, Trowa, let's go show Heero!" Trio once again grabbed Trowa's arm, and pulled him home.

& & & &

"Hey Heeeroooooo!" Trio called, as soon as they set foot in the mansion. She was still holding Trowa's arm. "Heeerooooo! HEEEEROOO! HEEE- oh hey Heero," she said, smiling as the cobalt blue-eyed teen appeared out of nowhere.

"Don't do that," Heero grumbled, glaring at Trio. Trio blinked.

"Do what?"

"Call my name...like that. You sound like her."

"Her? You mean Relena?" Trio guessed, hoping she was right. Heero glared at her. "Ah, and this would be...bad?" Heero shrugged.

"No, you just remind me of her."

"Aww, you miss your girlfriend, huh?" Trio teased. Heero blushed slightly despite himself.

"She's NOT my girlfriend. Now what did you want?" he asked, quickly changing the subject. "And why are you holding his arm?" he continued, pointed at her hand. Trio blinked and looked down.

"Oh, my bad," she said cheerfully. "Hey, we got something!" she said, looking really excited. She was kind of surprised Heero hadn't noticed the small pup in Trowa's arms yet.

"Where'd you go?" Heero asked.

"To the arcade. Trowa sucks at video games, by the way." Heero raised an eyebrow.

"You got something at the arcade? What, did you win a spider ring or something?" Trio laughed and shook her head.

"Hey, you made a joke. Congrats!"

"It slipped," Heero mumbled. Trio laughed some more.

"How was your trip to the scrap shop?" Trio asked.

"Fine," Heero replied shortly.

"Duo," Trowa reminded.

"Oh yeah!" Trio exclaimed. She took the puppy from Trowa's arms. "HERE'S what we got!" she said, shoving it gently at Heero, who automatically brought his hands up so whatever it was wouldn't fall. He then noticed that it moved, and his eyes widened slightly.

"What is it?" he asked. Trio laughed again, and Trowa smirked.

"It's a puppy!" Trio announced. Heero's eyes widened further, and for a brief second, something close to pain flashed in them.

"A puppy?" he echoed. Shaking himself lightly, he held it out at arms length. "You bought a puppy?" he asked, looking at Trowa for answer. Trowa shrugged.

"She was ten bucks. Duo bought her from a girl on the street who couldn't afford to keep them. He almost bought two."

"She? Her? It's a girl?" Heero asked, looking back at the dog who was currently trying to chew on his thumb. His face softened a little.

"Yep, and her name is Lilly," Trio said.

"Lilly? We're actually keeping that name?" Trowa asked. Trio shrugged.

"Sure, why not. It's what she's used to, and she's got that flower design thing on her back."

"Huh?" Heero said, flipping the pup around. Trio pointed out the black spots on it's back. Heero shook his head. "Quatre's gonna flip," he stated, as if it were a fact.

"Nah, I think Quatre likes small animals. And she's so cute!" Trio said.

"Calm down, Duo," Heero said, giving the puppy back to Trio. "You'll have to train her and all, since she IS yours. YOU bought her."

"Well then, fine. But then you all have to ask before you hold her," Trio said, sticking her tongue out. Heero shifted positions on his feet.

"I guess I could help you train her," he said after a minute, looking away. Trio smirked.

"Yeah, I hear ya." She looked at the puppy, who was falling asleep again. "Well, let's go find this critter a bed, huh?" She started walking out of the room.

"Critter?" Heero asked, looking at Trowa who had been watching Trio walk out. He shrugged, but smiled affectionately, ignoring the odd look Heero gave him.

* * *

More to come soon! 

-Maxine


	5. Chapter 4

While You Were Gone - Chapter 4

* * *

"A puppy?" Quatre asked, eyeing the small thing in Trio's arms. "You brought home a puppy?" Trio nodded happily.

"Isn't she the cutest, Quat? Come on, you have to let me keep her! Pleeeaaaase?" Trio pleaded with big eyes. Quatre sighed.

"You can keep her, just so long she's trained and you take care of her." He tried to look stern, but failed miserably when the puppy started whimpering and squirming around in Trio's arms.

"Thanks Quatre!" Trio exclaimed, just barely catching herself from throwing her arms around the blonde. Quatre chuckled.

"I wonder what Wufei will think of it," he mused, and then shrugged. "Guess it won't really matter." He followed Trio back into the living room where the others, minus Wufei who was still working, were.

"We're keeping her!" Trio exclaimed. Both Heero and Trowa suddenly looked like they were trying to hold back smiles.

"Well, dinner should be ready by the time Wufei gets back, so we'll be eating soon," Quatre said, sitting down on the couch. "Oh, Heero, I just remembered. I talked to Relena today and she wanted me to tell you that she says hi." The only acknowledgement that Heero'd heard was a slight nod of his head. "She, uh, well, you know she's coming to that conference next week, right?"

"Yeah," Heero replied.

"And you remember that she's staying here for that week, right?" Trio looked up from the floor where she was playing with Lilly, her eyes wide. No one noticed.

"...Yeah," Heero answered slowly. He glanced at Quatre out of the corner of his eye suspiciously.

"Well," Quatre continued nervously, "she was telling me that she was planning on taking a vacation after the conference, and she asked me if I knew of any good beaches." Quatre paused for a second. "I told her she could stay here instead, because I'm due for a vacation sometime soon too. We figured we could all hang out or something." Trio's eyes widened even more and she paled, as did Heero.

"She's staying here for TWO weeks now!" he asked, turning on the poor blonde. Quatre flinched.

"Well, actually, two and a half. She's going to come up early too. She'll be here tomorrow," he said quietly. Heero smacked his forehead. Trio, who'd momentarily forgotten about her worries, was enjoying Heero's unusual outward display of emotion.

"Aw, Heero, you know you're glad she's coming!" Trio exclaimed, smiling widely. "You get to see your girlfriend again!"

"She is NOT my girlfriend, Duo," Heero growled, glaring at the braided teen. "She is not now, nor will she ever be!"

"Just keep telling yourself that, Heero," Trowa commented quietly. Heero turned his glare to him.

"Don't you start," he growled, his face going slightly red.

"You know it's true, Heero," Quatre said calmly. "You shouldn't be afraid to-"

"Geez, what is this, gang up on Heero day?" Heero asked, cutting Quatre off. He sunk down into the couch.

"Sounds good to me," came of voice from the doorway. "I was getting kind of bored of always chasing Duo around anyway." Heero barely glanced up.

"Shut up, Wufei," he said simply. Wufei laughed and walked into the room, still dressed in his Preventor uniform. Lilly, upon noticing the new person, started barking in that cute, puppy way. Wufei raised his eyebrows.

"What was that?" he asked, looking around. He glanced down when he felt a slight tugging on the bottom of his pants. His eyes narrowed.

"Uh, Trowa and Duo bought a puppy today, Wufei," Quatre said, reaching down and removing the puppy before she accidentally tore Wufei's pants.

"...You mean we're keeping it permanently?" Wufei asked, plucking the dog out of Quatre's hands. He held it up and looked into its beady black eyes.

"She's not an it, she's a her!" Trio said from her position on the floor. Wufei lowered the puppy abruptly.

"You bought a weak girl dog!" he exclaimed. As if hearing the comment, Lilly immediately bit Wufei's thumb, hard. Wufei yanked his hand away and started shaking it. "Ow," he muttered. "Here, take your puppy back," he said, dropping the dog into Trio's lap. "I'm hungry, are we eating soon?" Quatre chuckled.

"Long day, Wufei?" he asked, getting up and walking to the dining room.

"Too long," was the reply. Quatre continued laughing, and the group went to eat dinner.

& & & &

Sometime the next morning, way too early, Trio was awakened by someone pounding on her bedroom door. Groaning, she rolled over in the bed towards the door.

"What?" she called out, her voice thick with sleep.

"Duo, get up!" came Quatre's voice. Trio groaned again and pulled herself out of bed. She flung open the door and glared at the blonde, who didn't seem at all affected by her appearance. "Sorry to wake you, Duo, but Relena's going to be here soon so I thought I should wake you up." Trio blinked a couple times until what Quatre had said sunk in. Her eyes widened.

"Uh, ok, thanks Quat. I'll be down in a bit," she mumbled, shutting the door without waiting for a reply. Shit! She'd completely forgotten about Relena. Just great, now she had to deal with the ex-Queen of the World, who'd she'd never met before and was supposed to know pretty well, for two and a half weeks! Trio threw on some clothes and quickly braided her hair before dashing out the door. Running down the stairs, she almost ran smack into Wufei.

"Watch where you're going, Maxwell," he said, scowling.

"Sorry, Wu-man," Trio mumbled. She followed him to the kitchen where the others were all gathered around a table. "So what time is she getting here?" she asked, getting everyone's attention.

"In about twenty minutes," Quatre replied, glancing at his watch. Trio smiled.

"Cool. So, uh, how long has it been since we've seen her now?"

"Well, I see her at these conferences every-so-often, but I guess the rest of you all haven't seen her since, what, her Christmas Party? And that was about six months ago," Quatre said. Trio nodded like she knew what he was talking about.

"It'll be good to see her again," Trowa said from his seat at the table.

"I could care less," Wufei said.

"Wufei!" Quatre scolded. "I know the two of you don't get along real well, but please be polite to her." Wufei hmphed. Suddenly bells chimed really loudly overhead, causing Trio to flinch and glance around like they were under attack or something.

"She's early," Heero said, glaring at Quatre like it was his fault. Quatre shrugged and walked towards the doors. Trio paled a little, and followed everyone else out. She was thinking of a way to get out of hugging Relena. Spotting something brown sleeping under the table, Trio sighed in relief and scooped up Lilly. She peeked around the corner just in time to see Quatre open the door and let a smiling Relena in. It was a little overwhelming, seeing her in person. After all, she had at one time been a big celebrity. Trio got over the feeling quickly, and walked over to greet her.

"Quatre!" Relena exclaimed, throwing her arms around the blonde. He returned the hug without hesitation. In the background, Heero scowled and leaned back against the wall.

"It's good to see you again Ms. Relena," Quatre said, pulling back.

"Oh please, Quatre. It's just Relena. How many times do I have to tell you that!" she scolded playfully.

"Well you know me, always being polite like that." Relena laughed.

"Of course," she replied. She turned to Trowa, who opened his arms to her. Smiling, she hugged him too. "How's work with circus going? Oh wait, you're on vacation right now, aren't you? My bad," she said, before Trowa got the chance to say anything. He just smiled and nodded. Relena turned to Trio, who thrust the puppy in her direction.

"Check it out! We got a puppy!" she exclaimed, smiling widely and hoping she didn't look as nervous as she felt. Relena's eyes widened.

"Awww, she's so cute! It's a girl, right?" Trio nodded. "Well, don't think that holding a puppy is going to get you out of a hug. I know you too well, Mr. Maxwell," Relena said, wrapping an arm around Trio's neck and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. Trio blinked, and rubbed her cheek.

"You caught me, 'Lena," she said teasingly. Relena chuckled and turned to the last two.

"Heero, Wufei, it's good to see you two again," she said, still smiling, though it looked a little forced. She turned back to Quatre. "You don't know how much I needed this. It is so boring back in the Sank Kingdom, especially since my brother is still on Mars and he took Noin with him."

"Well you're welcome to come up anytime. Now let's go get your stuff," Quatre said. He had his servants bring Relena's bags up to her room. "How about we go out back and talk for a while, catch up on things." Relena nodded eagerly.

"Sure, just let me go change into something more comfortable. I'm staying in the same room as usual, right?" Quatre nodded. "Ok, I'll be right back." Trio put the puppy down and watched it run after Relena. She turned to Heero.

"You could have been a little nicer," she muttered, glaring at him. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I was plenty 'nice,'" Heero said, his voice low.

"You obviously didn't see the pain in her eyes when she turned around. A simple hug is not a difficult thing to manage."

"And you were obviously seeing things, Duo," Heero growled.

"Get over yourself man!" Trio exclaimed. "The war is over! OVER! Forget whatever shit happened in your past and get on with the present! You've got a girl head-over-heels in love with you, and you just brush her off. She's not going to wait for you forever. One day she won't be there anymore, and maybe then you'll realize what you missed out on."

"The day she's not there is when I'll start smiling like you want me too," Heero snapped. Trio blinked.

"God, he was right. You really can be an insensitive bastard sometimes," she grumbled. It was quiet for a couple of seconds, before Trowa spoke up.

"He who?" Trio froze. Shit, had she really just said that?

"He...he, my imaginary friend he," she said quickly, throwing her arm around the air like it was a person's shoulders. Trowa looked at her doubtfully. "Meet Bob guys. If you ever happen to hear me talking to myself, it means I'm having a conversation with Bob. Heero over there knows what I'm talking about." From the top of the staircase, Relena started giggling.

"You're too much Duo," she said, walking downstairs. Trio whirled around, hoping she hadn't heard anything else before that.

"Hey babe! Looking good," she yelled out, trying not to really think about what she was saying.

"Thanks Duo," Relena said. She was wearing a light blue V-neck tank top that clung to the curves she had recently acquired. Beneath it was a pair of white shorts, and blue flip-flops adorned her feet. Her hair was free of the braids and pulled back into a ponytail. "So, we were going to go outside?" she asked.

"Yep, let's go," Quatre said, leading the way. They sat around the pool and talked for a while, about things from the past and recent events. It was quickly becoming close to lunchtime, and Trio was starting to burn up. Once again, she cursed her brother for always wearing black. So, doing what she figured her brother would do, she announced that she was hungry, rather loudly, as an excuse to go inside.

"Guys, I am starving! Can we go eat now?" Trio pleaded. Quatre glanced at his watch.

"Actually, it is lunchtime, I'll tell the cooks to prepare something."

"Something light, Quatre," Relena said. "I want to take you all out to dinner tonight."

"Don't you think we should be taking YOU out?" Quatre asked. Relena shook her head.

"Nah, I'll be here for two and a half weeks. You can do that later," she said, smirking. Trio smiled. She was beginning to like this girl. If she weren't pretending to be Duo, Trio would probably try to befriend Relena. She'd probably make a good friend. Trio stood up and stretched.

"Well, I'm burning up, so I'm going to go inside now. I'll see you all in a bit!"

"Why don't you just take a dip in the pool and cool off?" Heero asked.

"Huh?" Trio asked, looking at him. Before she could do anything, Heero reached out and gave her a quick push into the pool. Ok...he was obviously still mad about what happened earlier. Trio broke through the surface of the water gasping for air. "B-bakayaro!" she exclaimed angrily. "Now I have to go change." Pulling herself out of the pool, she ignored the laughing Wufei and smirking Heero. She'd get back at them later, somehow.

"Are you ok, Duo?" Relena asked worriedly.

"Fine, fine. Don't worry about me. A little water never hurt anyone," Trio said, smiling again. She waved her aside, and stomped through the house directly to the bathroom. Grumbling the whole time, Trio stripped off her wet clothes and the soggy tape around her chest, before unbraiding her hair and rinsing it off quickly. Seeing her reflection in the mirror, Trio paused. She turned to the side and put an arm under her chest. "You know, I was never that big to begin with, and this tape isn't helping any," she mumbled. "Duo owes me big time." Sighing, Trio glanced around. She cursed softly when she realized that she hadn't brought any dry clothes into the bathroom with her. Oh well, all the others were still outside.

With a towel wrapped around her, Trio cracked the door open and glanced out. She didn't see anyone, so she opened the door all the way and took a cautious step out. Still no one around. Walking quickly down the hall, Trio kept glancing about to make sure no on was there. She was looking everywhere but in front of her, so she didn't see the person walking around the corner in front of her until they ran into each other.

'Shit...' Trio thought, glancing at the person she'd run into.

"Oh geez, sorry Duo," Relena said, getting ready to step around her. "I had to get something out of...my...room..." She stopped and stared at Trio, who was still standing there wide-eyed. Relena looked her up and down once, and her eyes widened more than Trio thought was physically possible. "Oh. My. God," Relena breathed. "You're...but...I thought...do the others...I mean...you're a girl!" she exclaimed. That brought Trio back to her senses, and she immediately dragged the still shocked girl to her room.

"Go in!" she ordered, shoving Relena into her room. She followed and locked the door behind them.

"Duo?" Relena asked, trying to get her face back to neutral. "I mean...well, are you really Duo? Oh my God, I can't believe this. You're really a girl. All this time...One of my best friends, and he's a...SHE'S a girl. I...ewww!" she cried, making a face. "How can you really be a girl! You flirt with other girls all the time! And you've got a...oh my God...Hilde...does she know! Am I the only one that knows?" Relena continued rambling and by now was pulling at her hair.

"Relena! Quit it! Calm down, let me explain," Trio said, trying to keep her voice sort of quiet. Relena stopped talking and glanced up.

"You'd better explain," she growled. Trio smirked.

"Uh, you have to SWEAR that you won't breathe a word of this to anybody," Trio said, sticking out her hand. Relena looked at it for a second before taking it with her own.

"I swear," she whispered. Trio's shoulders relaxed.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not Duo." Relena relaxed visibly.

"Thank goodness," she muttered.

"I'm his twin sister."

"Oh ok, that...what?" she asked looking up.

"Trio Maxwell," Trio said, holding out her hand again. Relena took it slowly.

"...Okaaay..."

"Let me explain," Trio said, and quickly told Relena her situation. Relena listened intently.

"So, Duo is on a...mission right now?" she asked when Trio finished.

"Something like that. Professor G sent him on it, but it's also related with Preventors or something. I don't know the whole story."

"Wow, this is amazing. Duo has a TWIN sister. You're doing a great job by the way. I had no idea. I don't think any of the guys have noticed anything either."

"Thank goodness. I don't think all of their lights are on upstairs though. I mean, I was in the pool with them, and they didn't notice anything!" Relena's eyes widened. "I had a shirt on," Trio said quickly.

"Oh ok," Relena said, nodding. "You're lucky. Two months with them! I think it'd be kind of fun."

"Living with four guys? I don't think so. Especially when they're ALL good looking, and I keep wanting to flirt with them."

"That's true," Relena said.

"I'm gonna get dressed real fast, so..."

"Oh, sure." Relena turned around so she was talking to the wall. Trio quickly pulled on some underwear and put a pair of Duo's black gym shorts on over them.

"Look at this, I've been taping my chest down, and it's annoying as hell," Trio muttered, pulling out her tape.

"Oh I bet," Relena said. "Must be painful."

"I got used to it." Trio finished with her chest, and pulled white tank top over her head. "All done," she announced. Relena turned back around.

"You know, it's so obvious now. I feel kind of dumb."

"What?"

"That you're a girl!" Trio smiled.

"Well, that's a relief," she said, picking up a brush and running it through her hair. "Man, Relena, let me tell you. That boyfriend of yours is-"

"Oh I wish," Relena said glumly, cutting Trio off and sitting down on the bed. Trio raised an eyebrow. "I wish he was my boyfriend," Relena said, clarifying herself. Trio nodded.

"That boy makes me so mad sometimes. He was bored yesterday, so you know where he went? The Scrap Shop!" Relena burst out laughing.

"That is so HIM! I don't know what I see in him sometimes, I swear."

"You should fall in love with one of the others, like Trowa or something," Trio said, putting a rubber band around the end of her braid.

"Hmm, too quiet for me, though he is quite good looking," Relena said thoughtfully, resting her chin in her hands.

"That's an understatement. The guy is H-O-T hot! And he's extremely well built," Trio said, sitting across from Relena on the bed.

"Oooh, Trio's got a little crush, huh?" Relena teased. Trio blushed, realizing what she had just said.

"Well I didn't know I did, but I guess I do," she replied, scratching the back of her head.

"You look so much like Duo when you do that," Relena said. Trio smiled. Relena smiled back, and then frowned suddenly. "I wish Heero would like me back," she mumbled, and then blinked. "Gah, I sound like an eighth grader or something." Trio chuckled. The girls sat quietly for a while. A plan was forming in Trio's head during that time. There was a way she could get back at Heero AND get him to finally admit his feelings to Relena. She smirked.

"Relena, I think I've got an idea," she said. Relena looked at her, noticing the evil smile. She returned it after several seconds.

"Tell me."

* * *

And thus, they began scheming. Next chapter!

-Maxine


	6. Chapter 5

While You Were Gone - Chapter 5

* * *

The two girls broke out of their quiet talking when a loud knock sounded on the door. They paused, waiting to see who it might be.

"Duo? Lunch is ready," Heero's voice said, slightly muffled because of the door. Trio smiled and signaled for Relena to remain quiet. Quickly, she reached across and pulled the hair band out of Relena's hair, allowing it to spill freely over her shoulders. "Duo? Are you in there?" came Heero's voice again, sounding slightly annoyed. Trio swallowed to clear her throat.

"One second, Heero!" she called. She got up from the bed quite noisily, making slight shuffling sounds that Heero could hear on the other side of the door.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked. Trio gave one last glance at Relena and winked at her, before cracking open the door.

"Yes, Heero?" she asked, trying her best to sound as if she was trying NOT to sound guilty. It wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. Heero looked her over, noticing her slightly flushed face, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Lunch is ready. Have you seen Relena? She wasn't in her room." Trio glanced around, feigning slight nervousness, and motioned with a hand that Heero couldn't see for Relena to come to the door.

"Relena?" Trio asked. "Now, if she wasn't in her room, where could she be? Hmm..."

"I'm right here, Heero," Relena spoke up, pushing the door open. Heero blinked at her slightly disheveled appearance.

"Oh. What were you doing?"

"We were just talking. About...stuff," Relena said carefully, as if trying to keep something out. Heero looked at the two suspiciously. "Um...I need to get something out of my room really fast. I'll see you two at lunch?" They both nodded.

"Sure, Rel," Trio said, smiling cheerfully. Relena nodded, sharing a look with Trio, before walking off down the hall. Trio watched her go, letting her gaze linger on her retreating figure a little longer than necessary, causing Heero to clear his throat.

"What was that all about?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"What was what all about?" Trio asked innocently.

"Why was she in your room, and why was the door locked?" Heero snapped, his glare boring into Trio. She merely raised an eyebrow.

"And why do YOU care?" she asked quietly, teasingly. He growled at her. "Relax, buddy. Like the lady said, we were just talking!"

"Hn. Somehow, I doubt that." Trio shrugged.

"Think whatever you want!" she exclaimed, walking off down the hall. "Right now, I'm thinking about getting myself something to eat." Heero stood uncertainly in the hall for a second, glancing after Trio's retreating figure, before looking down the way Relena had just gone, and back again. Sighing, he finally decided to go eat.

& & & &

Sometime that afternoon, the gang was gathered around in the living room, lounging about and doing various activities. Trio and Relena were huddled together, sharing an overstuffed armchair in the room. They were chatting quietly about which actors they thought were the hottest in the movies at the moment, so of course they had to be quiet. Anyone who picked up on that conversation would be looking at "Duo" oddly for days. However, to the rest of the occupants in the room, the two looked just a LITTLE too comfy.

"Is it just me," Heero started to say to Trowa as the two played a game of chess, "or are those two acting differently around each other than they used to." Trowa glanced at the laughing pair in the corner, before returning his gaze back to the game.

"I think it's just Duo," he said, moving a knight across the board.

"No, Duo's still the same. He's just showering all his affections on Relena, and she's falling for it," Heero grumbled sourly. He stared at the checkered board for a minute before making his move.

"Are you suggesting that she's just another girl to keep him occupied while he's not with Hilde?" Trowa asked softly.

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying," Heero spat out. Trowa sighed.

"Heero, you and I both know that Duo's never cheated on Hilde since he's been on this colony."

"...Well then what's THAT?" Heero retorted, gesturing towards the two who were now laughing so hard about something that they had tears streaming out of their eyes and were leaning on each other for support. Trowa shrugged, trying to ignore the odd feeling that arose in his chest at seeing Duo like that. The way his eyes sparkled-

'Ok, stop that thought,' he said to himself abruptly. 'What is WRONG with me...' Out loud, he said, softly once more, "Is that JEALOUSY I detect in your voice?" A slight smile graced his face as Heero's face tinted red.

"Hn... No."

"But seriously, you haven't noticed anything different about Duo?" Trowa asked, his smile thinning. Heero looked at the braided teen, and then back to Trowa.

"No...should I have?" He paused for a second, scrutinizing the teen. "I guess he looks a little skinnier than usual, but then again, he's been eating less." Trowa nodded.

"Yeah...maybe that's it..." he said, more to himself than to Heero. Heero eyed him oddly for a second, before making a final move in the chess game.

"Checkmate," he declared, getting up quickly and grabbing his jean jacket off the back of the chair. "I'm going for a walk. Be back later." He left Trowa staring at the game board and headed out the door.

& & & &

"So anyway, I TOLD Duo NOT to bother looking for me that night," Trio whispered to Relena, giggling helplessly at the memory. "But he must have forgotten because the first thing he did when he came home that evening was barge into my room, about to explode with news about SOMEthing." She laughed a little louder this time, and Relena's smile widened.

"AND?" she prompted.

"Well, let's just say he got a free peep show from someone he had NEVER wanted to see like that," Trio finished, smirking. Relena's eyes widened.

"Wait, what were you doing? I mean...how far...?" She trailed off.

"Oh, I was only topless. Don't worry, I'm still a virgin," Trio said, grinning. "But, my boyfriend at the time was one of Duo's childhood enemies. Way back when... Imagine, coming home for a visit and walking in on your topless sister making out with your so-called 'worst enemy.' He wouldn't talk to me for weeks!" Relena burst out laughing, Trio soon joining her. She couldn't imagine Duo being so over-protective like that! Eventually, her laughter died down.

"Still a virgin..." Relena murmured to herself. Trio glanced at her. "Can you keep a secret?" Trio nodded eagerly, suddenly all ears. Relena took a deep breath. "I'm not." Trio raised an eyebrow.

"...Not what?" she asked warily. Relena grinned, almost evilly.

"Not a virgin." Trio gaped at her in shock.

"What! When did you...you know...and with who..." she trailed off, making random gestures with her hands, her eyes still wide. Relena merely pointed at a certain Prussian blue-eyed teen across the room, causing Trio's eyes to widen again, more than she thought physically possible. "WHAT!" she exclaimed, before quickly dropping her voice down to a whisper again. "When? I'm completely confused... I mean, if you've slept with the guy..." Relena shook her head slightly.

"I'm living testimony to the one weakness he ever allowed himself to have. THAT'S why he usually ignores me. Anyway, it wasn't supposed to happen. We went too fast, both thinking that we wouldn't be alive by that time the next day anyway." Trio raised an eyebrow as Relena lifted her eyes to meet hers.

"Explain," she ordered without room for argument. Relena sighed.

"It was when he was staying at the palace in Sank Kingdom. Just before I was named Queen, remember?" Trio nodded, recalling when her face had been all over the news. "Well, I'd just surrendered the kingdom and myself, so I was pretty upset, even if I didn't show it. Heero was apparently planning a suicide mission in Germany the following day... I ran into him in the hallway...and basically...well, I kind of threw myself at him, kissing him before he even had a chance to respond." Relena blushed slightly as she said this. "I...he pulled back and looked at me for a long time. I guess he understood where I was coming from. The only words spoken between us during that night were when he told me, 'just this once'," Relena said in a vague impersonation of Heero's voice. "He was gone in the morning, and we never talked about it. Obviously, we both survived that day. How was I to know they were going to make me a queen? I thought they were going to EXECUTE me!" Trio smiled.

"Was it good?" she asked, her voice low and seductive sounding. Relena laughed.

"Well, I have nothing to compare it to...but DAMN. Let me put it that way," she said, smirking. Trio laughed and glanced over at Heero, and then back to Relena before groaning.

"Ew...no offense, Relena, but I'm getting mental pictures...ugh, that's almost as bad as Duo and Hilde. GAH!" Relena's laughter grew, drawing the attention of the others in the room. "Aw man! That...just...I mean he's so uptight! Geez, Relena, you need to get him laid again!" Trio continued on around her laughter, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes from lack of oxygen. She brought up a hand to shield her eyes, as if to block out the pictures. "Eeewwww," she groaned. At that moment, Heero brushed by them into the hall, heading for the front door.

"Oh! Heero!" Relena called after him, causing him to pause and glance disinterestedly at her. "Don't be gone long. We're going out to eat in about an hour and a half. My treat, just like I said," she finished, smiling widely. Heero barely even acknowledged her, and simply turned around and continued on his way. Relena sighed, staring after him.

"Man, you'd think after what, two, three years, that he would loosen up around you at least a LITTLE," Trio said, somewhat sympathetically. Relena nodded.

"Yes, well, that's Heero for you!" she said cheerfully. Or at least, it was supposed to sound cheerful. But Trio could sense the pain behind it.

& & & &

Trio discovered that evening that pretending to be Duo in public was a little bit harder than it was back at Quatre's place. Especially since everywhere she looked there seemed to be some new girl fawning over her. She didn't look THAT much like a guy, did she? The thought kind of depressed her, but she summed it up to the black slacks, black button down shirt, and black tie she was wearing. The tie was incredibly annoying, and she suddenly realized why guys seemed to hate them so much. And curse the color black! She hated it! She'd barely been Duo for two weeks, and already she was sick of wearing his colors.

Sighing irritably, Trio followed the others into the restaurant they were eating at that night. It was fairly nice, thus the reason for the tie, but not too formal. The group walked up to hostess at the front of the restaurant. (A/N: Guest appearance numero uno!) The girl was busy adjusting her curly, dark brown hair beneath a bandana when she looked up at the group from behind her glasses. Dressed in dark blue plaid pants and a black tank top with a turtle necklace around her neck, she seemed very at home, despite the busy atmosphere around her. Relena smiled at her.

"Hello...Marla," she said politely, reading the name off her nametag. "We have reservations for 5:30. There's six of us, it should be under Dorlain." Marla glanced dully at the group before her. She was pretty bored, since she'd been working most of the day. She scanned each person, as she did unconsciously to anyone who entered the restaurant, her gaze lingering on Trio and Wufei a little longer than the others.

Perking up a bit and allowing a small smile to grace her face, she said, "I'm sorry, what name did you say your reservations were under?"

"Dorlain," Relena repeated. Marla glanced down at the long list in front of her, dragging her finger along the names until she found the one she was looking for.

"Ok, here we are! Your table should be ready. If you would please follow me." She led them to a fairly large booth in a corner of the restaurant and placed a stack of menus on the table. "Your waitress for the evening is Kuruwa (A/N: Second guest appearance!); she should be with you shortly to take your orders. Fell free to call for me if you have any complaints," Marla said, speaking more-or-less directly to Wufei, since he was the one walking beside her. He simply nodded and smiled slightly at her. Picking up one of the menus, she continued, "Well then, enjoy your meal!" and randomly handed the menu to someone. The "someone" just happened to be Trio, who blinked at the hostess before sliding into the seat across from Relena. Giving the table one last smile, Marla went back to her spot at the front of the restaurant.

"She was nice," Relena commented absently, picking up a menu and flipping through it. Random sounds of agreement were heard around the table. They'd only been looking through the menus for about five minutes when a short girl with deep brown eyes and hair appeared by the side of their table.

"Good evening folks, my name is Kuruwa and I'll be your waitress for the duration of your meal. We have several specials tonight..." and she went on to list them, her soft voice rushing slightly, as if she wanted to get it over with. When she finished, she smiled sweetly and finally glanced around the table. "Now, are you all ready to order, or would you rather I just get you some drinks to-" she cut herself off abruptly as her eyes passed over a certain green-eyed teen who was still looking through the menu. Man...he was GORGEOUS. "Some...some drinks to start out...with," Kuruwa finished faintly, eyes still glued on Trowa. When he finally glanced up she quickly jerked her eyes away, blushing bright red. Fortunately for her, the occupants of the table ignored this small scene and went ahead and ordered their meals.

(A/N: Erm...coming up is the THIRD guest appearance...eh-heh, I hadn't meant to put all these people in the same chapter, it just happened!)

Sometime later, when the group was well into their desserts, Trio found herself in quite a predicament. Who would have known that her brother had fans from all over the universe! Well, not that far, but close enough. She guessed it came from the whole being a Gundam pilot thing. Anyway, Trio had just been minding her own business, sipping her coffee, when a sudden commotion started up in the front of the restaurant and continued its way back to where she and the others were sitting.

"Aaaand my HEART wiiiiillllll go onnnnn aaaaaand OOOOONNNN!" a voice sang out, with no particular harmonic quality, not that the person sounded like they cared at all. Two other voices (A/N: No, NOT the other guest appearances...just random people who don't even have names...) could be heard trying to shush the person singing, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Lady, hush! This is supposed to be a nice restaurant, you're gonna get us thrown out!" one of the voices scolded.

"What on earth?" Relena mumbled, casting a glance over her shoulder. Before long, three figures waltzed into the back corner they were in. Well, one waltzed, the other two walked with their heads down, trying to avoid all the rude glares they were getting.

"This is embarrassing, Lady!"

"Don't they even know their friend's name?" Heero muttered, sending the trio a dark look. The one singing stopped by their table.

"Lady IS my name!" snapped the blue-eyed, brown-haired girl. Heero blinked at her sudden mood change, and then blinked again when she switched back to her previous, happy state. "Wyn Lady Lye, to be exact. Pleasure to meet you, Mr...?" Lady trailed off, bowing deeply, before glancing up when he didn't answer her.

"His name is Heero Yuy," Trio said from across the table, chuckling at this wacky girl who'd interrupted their meal, not that she minded of course. The two girls behind Lady gasped sharply.

"Heero Yuy!" exclaimed the blonde one.

"As in, the Gundam pilot, Heero Yuy?" asked the other, raven-haired girl. Lady stood and turned around to give her friends an odd look, before turning back to the table.

"You'll have to excuse my friends," she mock-whispered. "They're a little crazy..."

"WE'RE crazy!" cried the raven-haired girl indignantly, propping her hands up onto her hips. Lady just gave them a look that screamed "duh!" The two huffed and started glowering in the background. Lady chuckled and finally turned to face the person who had told her Heero's name. She'd meant to thank him, but all thoughts fled when she laid eyes on Trio (A/N: whom she thought was Duo...).

Eyes widened to several times their normal size, she screamed, "DUUUUOOOOOOO!" and promptly jumped in Trio's lap, since she was sitting closest to the aisle, and threw her arms around Trio's neck. "I can't believe it's you! It's really you! I should have known that you would be here! I mean, if Heero's here, then you would have to be here too! You don't understand how much I've always wanted to meet you! Ever since I was on L2 and I saw that picture of you on the wanted poster! I think it was love at first sight, don't you think so? Ever since then, I fell in love with all of the Gundams and I kept up with them throughout the war and I always had the latest news about what was going on and I was so worried when you got captured and OMIGOD! The rest are here too! And Relena Peacecraft! HOLY SHIT! Duo I can't believe I finally got to meet you! Waddaya say we go and elope, right now! Great idea, huh?" She managed to say all of this in one breath before her friends started pulling her off a very panicked Trio. At first Trio had thought she was supposed to know who this girl was, and she was very relieved when she found out she'd just seen her brother's picture on a wanted poster. "NOOO! You can't make me go!" Lady cried, grabbing Trio around the neck.

"We're very sorry about this," the blonde girl said, trying to pry Lady's grip off of Trio. She finally succeeded, only to have Lady grab onto Trio's braid instead.

"AACK!" Trio yelled as her head was violently whipped to the side. From her sideways vantage point, she could she Wufei, Heero, and Trowa smirking at the scene while Relena looked amused at the mix-up and Quatre looked slightly worried. "A little HELP guys!" Of course, no one moved to help her. Eventually, with the raven-haired girl's help, they managed to get Lady, who had a slightly crazed look in her eye, off of Trio.

"Really, Mr. Former Gundam pilot, we're EXTREMELY sorry!" the blonde cried again. If Trio didn't know better, she would have thought the girl thought she might HURT her or something.

"It's...ah...it's alright, really. I didn't know I had such fans," Trio said, forcing a wide smile onto her face. Her scalp was burning, but other than that she was fine.

"Duo..." Lady drooled. Trio panicked again.

"Er...you want my autograph?" she asked, semi-nervously. Lady's smile widened impossibly.

"YES PLEEEAAASE!" she exclaimed, and pulled out a Deathscythe shaped notepad out of nowhere, and a black pen with a matching chibi-Deathscythe figurine on the end of it. She smiled proudly and handed them to Trio, who raised and eyebrow and took them warily. Trio began to sign her own signature, stopping abruptly when she wrote a "T" instead of a "D."

"Er..." she mumbled nervously, and somehow transformed the "T" into a small scythe. She had the feeling that if she had been on an anime show, she would have sweatdropped. (A/N: Uh...eh-heh...) Quickly, she finished signing Duo's name and handed it back to Lady. Lady grinned like a maniac again before quickly ripping out a piece of paper and scrawling down a number.

"Wyn Lady Lye, phone number's at the bottom!" she said proudly.

"Erm...thanks?"

"No problem!" Unfortunately, at that moment, a none too happy Marla stomped to the back of the restaurant.

"Do you realize," she practically growled, "that in the past five minutes I've gotten more complaints than in the entire time that I've worked here!" She pointed at the three newly arrived girls. "I'm sorry, but you three have to leave." The three girls' eyes widened.

"What! But we have reservations!" said the raven-haired girl. Marla shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but you should have thought of that BEFORE you made such a ruckus."

"We're NOT leaving," Lady said threateningly. Marla raised an eyebrow.

"Oh reeaally... Security!" Immediately, two large guards came marching in. With a small "eep," Lady's two friends scurried out of the restaurant. Marla gestured to Lady, and the guards moved towards her, until Marla stopped them again. She'd spotted something. "Oh...and I'm really sorry, but I'll have to take this." Quickly, she snatched the Deathscythe notepad and pen away from Lady. "It...it could be used as...a weapon!" she exclaimed. "Yes, right, a weapon. I can't endanger the safety of my customers, now can I? Take her out of the restaurant now, thank you." Smiling cheerfully, Marla stole a glance at Trio before heading back up to her position again. Lady watched after her wide-eyed.

"B-but...but...my autograph...NOOOOOO!" she cried out, bursting into giant sobs as the guards carried her away. Even when she was out of sight, the group at the table could hear her scream, "I never even got his phoooone nuuumbeeeer!" Trio and the others shared a glance with each other before shrugging and standing up. They were pretty sure it was time to leave.

"I wasn't aware we were so popular, especially you, Duo," Trowa stated, standing up from the booth and stretching at his arms above his head. He wasn't even paying attention when a shorter girl bumped into him.

Kuruwa had just been about to bring her last table their check and leave for the night when she witnessed a screaming brunette being pulled out of the restaurant. 'Odd,' she thought, glancing over her shoulder as she continued walking. 'Very o-" Her thought was cut off as she walked straight into a well-toned chest. 'Oops, way to be graceful, Kuruwa,' she berated herself, before glancing up into startling green eyes. 'Oh no...'

Trowa glanced down at their waitress, who was staring wide-eyed up at him. "Sorry, about that," he immediately apologized. "Are you alright?"

"Uh...yeah...YES! I'm fine! I, um...here's your check. Thank you for eating here tonight, please come again soon," Kuruwa burst out, before shuffling away quickly. 'Real soon,' she thought to herself, and allowed a smile to grace her face as she prepared to leave for the night.

Trowa handed the check to Relena, who had refused to let anyone else chip in to pay for it, and threw a couple of extra bucks into the tip that was already lying on the table. 'She deserved it,' he said to himself. 'Especially for dealing with THIS group. Plus, she was kinda cute.' Trowa smiled. 'Heeeey! I just thought she was cute! And she's not a guy! This is good!' Of course, then he happened to glance back at Trio, who still looked kind of shaken after the whole Wyn Lady Lye incident. 'Duo's just as good-looking tho- GAH!' He frowned deeply and started to head out to the parking lot.

Behind him, Trio frowned also. "What'd I do?" she whispered to Relena, who had also seen Trowa look at hetr, frown, and leave abruptly. The other girl shrugged.

"No idea," she murmured thoughtfully. "Hmm..." Trio shrugged as well, watching Quatre and Wufei follow Trowa out. Noticing that Heero was still behind them doing...something...Trio quickly walked towards the exit, purposefully dropping the paper with Lady's phone number on it. As predicted, Relena noticed it float to the ground behind her, and turned around to pick it up. "Tr-er-Duo! You dropped this!" she called out, standing up quickly and inadvertently colliding with Heero as he started to walk by. "Oh...Heero, sorry, I..." and she trailed off, not really knowing what to say. Far ahead of her, Trio glanced back and saw Heero and Relena standing inches apart, with no one else around to bother them. And since they were walking home...Trio smiled and hurried to catch up with the others to tell them to go on ahead.

Relena and Heero would be just fine on their own.

* * *

Ok, so that chapter's pretty much on crack... I remember I had some sort of contest, and all those 'guest appearances' were different people who had reviewed the fic... Oy.

-Maxine


	7. Chapter 6

While You Were Gone - Chapter 6

* * *

Trio never really did find out exactly what happened that night. All she knew was that when Heero and Relena arrived back at Quatre's house, they were talking animatedly with each other, and Heero's eyes looked brighter than she had ever seen them. Trio never got a complete answer out of Relena, either. Whenever she asked, Relena would just smile and say something cryptic, like, "We just understand each other."

...Right, and that explained oh so well what had happened that night! Trio didn't get to talk with Relena much more while she was there, as she spent most of her time walking through the gardens with Heero. And whenever she WAS with Relena, Heero would always be somewhere close by, glaring at her. Geez, talk about being over-protective. Taking up the role of her brother, Trio had begun pestering Heero about his relationship with the Vice Foreign Minister. Of course, he would always insist that there was NOTHING between them; they just enjoyed the other's company. At this, Trio would snort, and Heero would usually reward her with a glare.

It was all a big cycle, she decided. Relena was leaving in two days; the time she had spent with them had gone by in a blur. Trio sighed. At the moment, she was once again lounging in the living room, staring at the ceiling. The T.V. was on, but she wasn't paying attention to whatever was on. Something about a spirit detective and a god who looked like a toddler? (A/N: Bonus points for anyone who knows the show) Whatever is was, she wasn't interested. At the moment, she had her own dilemmas to worry about. Like this whole thing with Trowa. Now, she KNEW he was supposedly the quietest one out of the group, but honestly, it was more like he was avoiding her. Every time he saw her, his eyes would narrow thoughtfully, and he would abruptly back out of the room. No one else seemed to notice, except Relena, but that was because the two girls were looking for clues such as that.

For whatever reason though, today Trowa seemed to be putting up with her. Well, he was in the same room as her anyway. He was sitting sideways in the overstuffed armchair, so that his legs were hanging over the arm, reading a book. He seemed to be completely absorbed in it, so Trio took the time to study him. Of course, she was lying on her back on the couch, so she watched him from an upside down vantage point, her head hanging off the side of the couch.

She hadn't been lying when she told Relena that he was hot, she really thought he was. Obviously of European decent, probably Hispanic or Latin, he had a natural tan that was highlighted by the soft lamp light falling on him. He had the greenest eyes Trio had ever seen, and the way his hair fell over his eyes gave him a mysterious air about him. Trio scrunched her eyes up and cocked her head to the side a bit. And damn, he OBVIOUSLY worked out (as did everyone else in the house, but Trio ignored that). Today he was wearing slightly baggy jeans with a black muscle shirt. He looked good to say the least.

'Damn it, Trio, stop! Come on, girl, you've still got a month left, don't be falling for this guy NOW!' As she was silently berating herself, Trowa finally glanced up.

"Duo?" he asked, trying to shake the boy out of his reverie. It took a second, but Trio finally remembered that for the time being SHE was Duo, and she was still staring at Trowa, who was now looking at her like she was crazy. She blinked.

"Er...hey Trowa!" she said, still looking at him upside down.

"You were staring at me," he said bluntly, sounding a little uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat a bit. Trio blinked again.

"Uh...I was?" Gah! She smacked herself mentally. "Sorry, T! I...didn't realize it?" Oh come on, she had to be a better actress than THAT. "I mean, I kind of dozed off there for a second. You know me!" She laughed a bit weakly and waited for Trowa to answer. Again, he did that little narrowing of the eyes thing of his.

"Right..." he finally said, though he sounded wary. Something was very wrong here. From what he could tell, Duo did NOT have the same body structure that he used to. Granted, they hadn't been to the gym lately, but still... In the shirt that he was wearing, he looked much thinner, and his shoulders weren't near as broad. And since his head was hanging over backwards, the shirt stretched across his chest...where Trowa could clearly see two slight, very slight, humps. (A/N: Ok, no matter how much you tape your chest down, if the shirt is flat enough against you, you'll see SOMEthing). THAT caused his eyes to widen abruptly, causing to Trio to jump up.

"What?" she asked quickly, thinking something was wrong. As soon as she stood, though, the shirt loosened up and she again looked very much the guy part she was playing. Trowa blinked. Was he just seeing things?

"You...you ARE Duo, right?" he asked. Trio froze. Shit...

"What the hell type of question is THAT?" she asked, snorting at the end. "Duh, who ELSE would I be?" She started laughing here. "Trowa, I think you need to get a little more sleep." Slowly, Trowa closed his book and set it on the coffee table beside him.

Standing up, he said, "You're lying." Trio's eyes widened.

"Lying! Why the hell would I be lying! Trowa, what's gotten into you?" She knew the answer already though. 'The truth,' she thought despairingly. 'DAMN IT!' Outwardly, she appeared quite confident in what she was saying, inwardly, she was panicking. Trowa opened his mouth to say something, his eyes already narrowed into that hard glare that Heero was famous for, but at that exact moment, the vidphone rang. Trio, being the closest to it, rushed to answer it. Anything to get away from Trowa. Knowing it was the house phone, she answered it in what she considered a typical Duo answer. No need to say that she also hoping to convince Trowa that she WAS Duo.

"Hi, you've reached Shinigami's hot sex line, how may I serve you?" she purred out in as deep a voice she could manage. On the screen, a girl with big blue eyes smiled back at her brightly.

"Duo!" she exclaimed cheerfully, her short black hair bobbing around her face. Her eyes had a sort of pleading look in them, and Trio suddenly realized that this was the girl Duo was always going on about. Shit...her name...what was her name! On the screen, the girl mouthed the word "Hilde" very slowly and Trio's whole body sagged with relief.

"Hilde! Babe, how's it going?" Phew! She sneaked a glance at Trowa, noticing that he was still watching her suspiciously, probably because of the length of time it had taken her to get reply to Hilde.

"I'm just fine, Duo. It's been a while since you called me, you know!" On screen, she held up a piece of paper that said, "Duo's here," on it. Trio smiled.

"Eh-heh... Hey, babe, I'll call you back in a sec, I'm gonna use my laptop." Hilde nodded, putting the paper down.

"What, don't want me to embarrass you in front of your friends?"

"Naw, I do that on my own all the time."

"Alright, talk to you in a few."

"Ciao!" Trio turned the vidphone off and turned to Trowa, smiling sheepishly. "I think she's mad at me."

"I would be too, had my boyfriend forgotten MY name," Trowa said pointedly.

"I didn't forget her name," Trio said exasperatedly. "I was just surprised to see her!"

"Right," was the reply, as Trowa spun on his heel and walked out of the room. Trio stared at his back for a second, worry flooding through her, before running up to her room. Hilde answered her call on the first ring.

"Hilde! My brother's back?"

"Yes, yes, he's here," Hilde replied, laughing. "Nice to meet you too, Trio."

"Oh, God, I'm sorry. It's good to finally meet you, Hilde."

"Geez, Trio, where're your manners?" Trio's face exploded into a smile.

"DUO!"

"Hey girl! How is everything?" Duo asked, his face coming into view on the screen.

"I'll talk to you later, Trio," Hilde said from behind him. Trio nodded and waved at the girl as she wandered off.

"Everything is a mess, that's how everything is," Trio answered glumly, plopping down in the chair in front of her desk. Duo's blinked.

"Why? What happened?" he asked quickly.

"Well, nothing YET," Trio admitted. "Relena's here, you know, for that conference thing?" Duo nodded. "And, well, she caught me coming out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, so I had to explain everything to her. She's been hanging out with Heero in her free time tho-"

"HEERO?" Duo cut in, eyes wide. Trio smirked.

"Yeah, did you know that they slept together back when he and Quatre were staying in the Sanq Kingdom? THAT'S why he avoids her." On the screen, Duo's jaw dropped.

"You're kidding!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Oh my God, I don't believe it! Whoa..."

"Yeah, but I probably wasn't supposed to tell you. Anyway, we went out to eat one night and left them at the restaurant by themselves to walk home together, and since then they've been inseparable. Neither of them will tell me what happened though."

"Huh, that's crazy. Dang..."

"Mhmm. Yeah, well so that keeps Heero occupied, Quatre and Wufei are usually gone during the day, but Trowa..." Trio paused.

"What about Trowa?" Duo asked, prompting her on.

"Well...I think he suspects something." Duo blinked.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he told me, quite bluntly, that I wasn't you."

"Damn..."

"That's what I said."

"So what'd you do?"

"Well, at that exact moment, Hilde called."

"Oh, so this happened just now?" Trio nodded, pausing again.

"Yeah, but I think he's suspected something for a while. Ever since the second day I got here, when we went swimming-"

"Swimming!" Duo cut in again, staring at her with an overprotective look.

"Yeah, swimming," Trio smirked. "Some moron asked Quatre if he could get the pool ready," she added with a glare to her brother. Duo blinked and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, that's right, I did ask him to, didn't I?" he said sheepishly. "What happened?"

"I just wore a shirt the whole time, pretending I was tired. They ended up throwing me in though, and we had this huge water fight. It was fun actually..." Trio trailed off, and Duo glared at her.

"I do NOT like the idea of you being in a pool with four other shirtless guys..." he grumbled. Trio smiled.

"Aww, thanks for caring big, brother. Anyhoo, I ended up backed up against Trowa. You know, he was stuck between me and the wall. Then he pushed me away and left really quickly. Since then, he's kind of avoided me. Except for when I dragged him to the arcade," Trio added as an afterthought. Duo leaned towards the screen, resting his cheek in his hand.

"Maybe he likes you," he said thoughtfully. Trio's eyes widened.

"No way! Hello, he thinks I'm you! Are you saying he's _gay_?" she ended, almost angrily.

"_You_ said he doesn't believethat you're me," Duo pointed out.

"Oh yeah...so...he's confused probably. That would explain all the weird looks he's given me." There was a pause again, and then, as if in realization, Trio exclaimed, "He LIKES me! Omigosh!" Duo blinked.

"Flashback to third grade..." he mumbled, before his eyes narrowed. "No you don't, Trio. Don't you DARE go falling for one of the guys, I warned you about that!" Trio blinked innocently at him.

"Who, me?"

"Yes, you. Damn it, Trio, stop! Bad, bad female hormones! Be gone!" Trio smirked.

"Can I tell him, that way he doesn't go blabbing his suspicions to the others?" Duo shook his head.

"Absolutely not. He probably wouldn't believe you, anyway. How would you prove it to him, rip open your shirt and show him your boobs?" Trio tilted her head to the side thoughtfully, as if thinking it over. Duo's eyes immediately widened, and he gripped the sides of the vidphone. "DON'T YOU DARE!" he practically shouted. "I was JOKING. Damn it, if I find out that you had SEX in MY bed or something!" Trio burst out laughing.

"Geez, Duo, cool your jets. I wouldn't have sex in your bed. I wasn't PLANNING on sleeping with him, God. What type of slut do you think I am? But if it makes you happy, I'll be sure to make certain that we use HIS bed." Duo's eyes narrowed.

"Not. Funny."

"No, but YOU certainly are," Trio quipped, smiling widely.

"Well, someone has to watch over you."

"I've been doing a fairly good job all these years."

"Huh, right."

"Well anyway, so what should I do?"

"Um..." Duo said helpfully. "You're, uh...you're just gonna have to stick with it. If the others don't suspect anything, then they won't believe Trowa if he says something. Especially if Heero hasn't noticed anything."

"He hasn't, but he's been distracted."

"Then you're good to go. Don't worry, there's only a month left since my mission didn't take as long as I thought it would. And maybe I'll cut my vacation short too, just for you." Trio grinned.

"It would be appreciated. In fact, unless something extremely drastic happens, like your girlfriend getting pregnant or something, I expect you back in three weeks, got that?" she said teasingly, but paused when Duo's face flushed red. She blinked. "Oh my God... Is Hilde pregnant?"

"No no no!" Duo said quickly, waving his hands at the screen. "No, she's not...pregnant." He looked slightly scared at the thought. "No, but um..." He lowered his voice and glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "Does proposing count as something drastic?" Trio's eyes widened and she squealed excitedly.

"You're going to propose to her! AHHHH! Omigosh, that's so cool! I'll have a sister! Wait," she stopped screaming abruptly. "Duo, you're only 18. Isn't that a little young?" Duo shrugged.

"I'm gonna wait a bit, I haven't even gotten a ring yet, though I've been saving up for one. And we don't have to get MARRIED right away, we'll just be engaged. We've been dating for three years," Duo replied, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms behind his head.

"True, true," Trio relented. "Well, I'm all for it! Good luck!"

"Thanks, but I won't need it," Duo said, grinning mischievously. Trio smirked at him.

"Right. Well, I should go. I'm glad you got back safely. Seriously, when DO you think you'll be back?" Duo leaned forward again.

"Uh, I'll make it three weeks, k? Just for you, 'cause I love ya." Trio smiled.

"Well, I love you too. I'll talk to you later!"

"Alrighty. Ja!"

"Bye," Trio said, closing the line. She sighed as her brother disappeared from the screen. Three weeks...that wasn't so bad. She was supposed to have about FIVE weeks left.

Trio wandered downstairs to the kitchen, searching for something to eat. Trowa was already in there, eating an apple at the table as he read his book again. Trio had the greatest urge to run out of the room again, but that would REALLY make him suspicious. Instead, she smiled brightly, the thought that he might like her making it easier, and walked to the refrigerator.

"Hey, Trowa," she greeted, standing on her tiptoes to open the cabinet above the fridge. There were some cookies up there she wanted. Trowa barely glanced up from his book at her.

"How's Hilde?"

"She's great," Trio answered, smirking. Trying to avoid anymore questions, Trio walked over to the entrance to the living room with her cookies, stopping when Trowa called after her.

"Heero and Relena are in there," he said, closing his book and propping his sock-clad feet up on another chair. Trio perked up.

"Doing what?" she murmured suggestively, peeking around the wall. Her eyes widened. "Oh...THAT," she said, eyes filling with delight at the site of Heero and Relena, T.V. long forgotten, making out on the couch.

"Yes, that," Trowa replied, smirking. Trio glanced back at him.

"Quick, got a camera anywhere?"

"They're in that drawer over there, remember?" Trowa said nodding towards the said drawer. Trio ignored him, heading for the drawer.

"Right, right, I forgot," she said quickly, pulling a camera out. Making sure the flash was off, she quickly began snapping pictures of the two, hoping they were so caught up in themselves that they wouldn't hear anything. They didn't. "Hehe, we'll just put his back in here, and no one will know until the pictures are developed," Trio said, snickering to herself and putting the camera back where she got it. She turned around, startled to find Trowa standing directly in front of her.

"I know," he said simply, arms crossed and staring down at her. "I know a lot of things." Trio gripped the counter behind her, her eyes widening slightly despite her attempt to look neutral. She grinned widely.

"Really, Trowa? Like what?" 'Just play it cool, girl, play it cool...' Trowa stepped closer to her, and she flattened herself against the counter.

"I know you're not Duo."

Trio shook her head. "And that's where you're confusing me, Trowa. OF COURSE I'm Duo." Suddenly remembering something her brother had told her a couple years ago, she added, "I always knew there had to be more to that bump on the head you got than amnesia. You need to get some sleep." Trowa blinked at that, but didn't back down.

"You're good," he said, leaning forward so that his forehead nearly touched Trio's. "You even had me fooled for a little while." Trio swallowed. He was so close...too close. His warm breath mingled with hers as she tried to make herself one with the counter.

"Personal space, Trowa. You're crowding me," she protested weakly.

"Tell me who you are," he insisted, his lips only millimeters away from hers. Trio licked her suddenly dry lips as Trowa's hands leaned against the counter behind her, which she was still gripping, effectively boxing her in. She stared wide-eyed at him, almost losing herself in the depths of his eyes.

"I'm...I'm Duo...Duo Maxwell," she said breathlessly, all too aware that Trowa seemed to be getting even closer. "I...I may run and hide, but I never..." Her eyes slid halfway shut as Trowa finally closed the distance between them. For just a brief second, his lips brushed against hers in a butterfly kiss, before she continued talking. "Never..." Another butterfly kiss. "Tell..." Again, a kiss. "A lie..." she finally trailed off, pressing herself against Trowa and kissing him fully. Mere seconds later, he broke it off again, breathing deeply as he leaned his forehead against Trio's. Both of their eyes were shut.

"What about Hilde?" Trowa asked, in an attempt to get it out of this person who she really was (he was expecting something along the lines of, "Hilde? Hilde who?"). Or rather, who HE really was, but Trowa was almost positive the person in front of him was a girl. At least, he knew it wasn't Duo. Or he was pretty sure...90 percent sure...dropping to 80 percent...and then to 75... All of a sudden Trowa felt the doubt come gnawing back at him, especially when Trio's eyes popped open. What if it WAS Duo?

"Hilde! SHIT!" she exclaimed, and with newfound energy, she pushed Trowa away from her. What was she doing? Risking everything? She was DUO, that was the part she HAD to play! Kissing Trowa was NOT part of the script! She couldn't allow the others to think that...that...he would cheat on his girlfriend! Or that he was attracted to guys! Damn it!

Trowa's heart nearly plummeted towards his stomach at that. It...it WAS Duo? No, it couldn't be...wait...but he was so worried about Hilde. No, but it didn't SEEM like it was Duo. ARGH!

Trowa stepped back as Trio whirled on him. "Look, Trowa, I don't know what the hell that was about, but it NEVER HAPPENED. Sorry, man, but I REALLY don't feel that way about you. And I can't believe I just did that to Hilde. Shit..." Trio put all her effort into that. She HAD to make him believe that she was Duo. And it worked pretty well.

Trowa paled, his eyes widening. Crap, it WAS Duo. Now what?

* * *

Hehe, poor wittle Trowa. He's so confused. More soon!

-Maxine


	8. Chapter 7

While You Were Gone - Chapter 7

* * *

The silence in the kitchen at that moment was horribly tense. Trio was doing her best NOT break eye contact with Trowa, as she stood there with her arms crossed. Trowa, who was several shades paler than he should have been, was standing slightly slumped over, a confused, defeated, and hurt look in his eyes. It made Trio cringe, but she couldn't turn away. The silence was only broken when a small barking sound broke through the air. Trio glanced down finally when she felt a slight tugging at her pants. She blinked then, and scooped up the small puppy in her hands.

"Hey, Lily, I bet you're a hungry puppy, aren't you," Trio cooed, slowly turning and walking out of the room without a backwards glance at the boy standing there. Trowa only crossed his arms, his eyes following her out. He couldn't believe he'd just kissed DUO. Had it really been THAT long since the war ended, that he'd become so rusty in his skills? Honestly, thinking Duo was a girl... He just hoped that the braided boy kept his promise and somehow forgot about what had happened.

When Quatre and Wufei entered the kitchen a few minutes later, they found Trowa still standing by himself in the center of the room, arms crossed and looking angry. The Arabian and the Chinese shared a glance with each other before Quatre spoke up warily.

"Trowa?" he asked, setting his briefcase down on the table without looking away from the uni-banged pilot. "Is something wrong." Trowa didn't answer; he just continued to glare at nothing. Quatre looked at Wufei again, who in return shrugged.

"Trowa?" Wufei asked.

"I'm fine," Trowa said shortly, not moving an inch. "Nothing's wrong." The other two waited a little more for some sort of explanation or movement, but nothing happened and they again shared a worried look.

"Are you sure?" Quatre questioned slowly. Trowa finally blinked, dropping his arms from their place across his chest.

"Yeah, I'm positive." He turned on his heel and walked into the living room where Relena and Heero still were. Quatre and Wufei quickly followed, but stopped short, making sounds of disbelief when they saw the room's other two occupants...who still hadn't noticed anyone enter the room. Trowa continued walking towards them, snatching the remote control from the coffee table. "Either shove over or get a room," he said flatly, watching amusedly as Heero shot up, his entire face flushing an embarrassed red. "You're taking up the whole couch," Trowa continued, sending a glance to Relena, who was still lying on the couch, noticing how she warily crossed one arm across her chest over the light pink shirt she was wearing. With her other hand she waggled her fingers up at Trowa in greeting, smiling nervously at him. From where he was still straddling Relena, Heero coughed.

"So sorry, Trowa," he bit out, sending a full-forced Heero Yuy patented death glare at the taller pilot. Trowa smirked, causing Heero's frown to deepen.

"No problem," he replied, stepping aside and gesturing with his hands for Heero to leave. Heero growled before standing up. He offered a hand to Relena and they made their way out of the room to some other location in the house. "Be safe now, kids!" Trowa called after them sarcastically.

"Fuck you, Trowa!" he heard Heero yell back. Trowa plopped down on one end of the couch, flipping idly through the channels.

"Naw, that's what you have Relena for!"

"Trowa!" Quatre exclaimed, sounding shocked. From another room Trowa could hear enraged sounds of protest as Relena tried to calm Heero down, before a door slammed shut.

"Sorry, I'm in a bad mood," Trowa said darkly.

"Still, that doesn't give you an excuse to...I mean, you should at least apologize to her...did he have his hand up her SHIRT?" Quatre finally asked, looking slightly flustered. Trowa chuckled, reaching down with a hand and lifting up a white, lacy bra that had been tucked in between the cushions. Quatre's eyes widened as he made a slight choking sound.

"And her shorts were unbuttoned," Trowa said casually, dropping the bra back onto the couch. Quatre looked like he was about to faint, as Wufei finally walked over to stand beside the blonde.

"Maybe you shouldn't be sitting on that couch," he said slowly, eyeing the item in disgust. Trowa just snorted as Trio walked into the room, still holding Lily.

"Heero and Relena are having sex by the pool," she said bluntly, having caught the end of their conversation. Quatre hit the floor at that point while Trowa abruptly jumped of the couch, looking at it in fear. Trio raised an eyebrow, glancing at Wufei who was staring wide-eyed at her. "I was just kidding..." she muttered, chuckling a little. Trowa let out a relieved breath, as did Wufei as he kneeled down by Quatre.

"Help me get him onto the couch," he said to Trowa.

"Why? He'll just pass out again when he wakes up on it," Trowa mumbled. But he complied anyway.

& & & &

A week had passed with everything pretty much returning to normal. Literally, everything. Heero was back to his usual grumpy self with Relena gone. He was constantly giving Trowa evil looks though, which was new. Trowa would just usually chuckle and quip something like, "What? Didn't get any?" At which Wufei and Trio would have to hold Heero back before he tried to strangle the taller boy. Trowa, still a little uncomfortable around Trio, had been ignoring her for the most part, but hadn't made any more suggestions that she might not be Duo.

It was that week later that Trio received a call that effectively sealed her doom with the whole "faking-to-be-Duo" thing, at least as far as she was concerned. It had come in the middle of the night, on Duo's laptop. It had taken a full minute of the shrill beeping from it to finally annoy Trio enough to answer it. She'd been hoping that whoever it was would just give up. So needless to say, when she answered the call, she wasn't in the best of moods.

"What?" Trio mumbled grouchily when a very odd looking man appeared on the screen.

"Trio, we've got a problem," a nasal voice that Trio didn't recognize said. Trio blinked, and then rubbed her eyes. The only light in the room was coming from the glow of the computer screen, and she was only just now able to make out a figure with a long pointy nose and a mushroom-shaped haircut.

"We do?" she asked tiredly, raising a hand to cover her mouth as she yawned. "Do I know you?" The person sighed.

"No, I suppose not. This is the first time you and I have spoken to each other. My name is Professor G." It took a while for that name to register, but when it finally did, Trio's eyes widened.

"Oh...oh! Professor G! Yeah, my brother's spoken of you. Is everything alright?"

"No, actually, we have a very big problem."

"And...that would be...?"

"Dr. J has found that there is a small group forming on the Earth with plans of blowing up the colonies...or some nonsense such as that." Trio blinked.

"You don't sound too worried."

"I'm not. This isn't exactly a rare occurrence. There's always one group or another that thinks they can accomplish something that deals with big explosions. Their plans never fall through though. However, this group already has a base located in one of the rain forests in South America. From what we have discovered, they have a decent amount of explosives and weapons hidden there." Trio sighed.

"So how does this concern me?"

Sounding almost annoyed, Professor G answered, "Preventors doesn't know about it yet, because J's the one that found it, so the other scientists decided to send you five to destroy the base. Usually we just wait until Preventors DOES discover it, but due to the amount of explosives this group already has, we decided it would be safest to have someone with more...stealth experience to take the job."

"Us...five? ...They don't know I'm here, do they?" Trio asked quickly in a worried tone. Professor G shook his head slowly.

"That was all part of Duo's mission. No one else was to know about it."

"But...but I have NO 'stealth' experience," Trio said nervously. Professor G nodded.

"The others will get the mission in the morning. I'll be calling Duo at that time, and hopefully he can steal a shuttle or something and get to Earth when you do. There, you two can switch places again."

"Oh..._that'll_ work." Professor G shrugged.

"I'm not into fancy plans."

"Well what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Just tag along with the others?" Trio asked.

"They usually split up into two groups. Try to let them do most of the work. Where they place their own bombs is VERY important, because if they're in the wrong spot, then they'll set off the other explosives, and all of you will probably die in the following explosion," Professor G said, quite bluntly. Trio paled.

"Thanks for that..."

"Now you know you can't screw up." Trio nodded slowly.

"Riiiight..."

"Hey, feel along the left side of the laptop. When you feel a button, push on it." Raising an eye at the sudden odd request, Trio did as she was told. Upon pressing the button, a small compartment slid out, containing what looked to be a small earpiece. Trio held it up to the screen, and Professor G nodded. "Where that tomorrow, that way I'll be able to communicate with you and let you know when Duo arrives."

"Uh...alright," Trio said, nodding.

"That's all, I'll be in contact with you tomorrow." Before Trio could reply, Professor G disappeared from the screen and the room darkened. She sat in the seat for a while, staring blankly at the computer before her. She was supposed to go on a mission? Eh-heh... Of course she'd told Duo she'd be able to handle something like this if it came up, but she didn't think it would actually happen! With fear gripping her, Trio slowly made her way back to the bed. It took her a long time to fall asleep, and she was already awake when Heero started banging on her door the next morning.

& & & &

On L2, it was almost afternoon by the time Trio and the others had gotten their mission report. Duo had taken Hilde out for breakfast that day, and afterwards they had done some shopping around town. They finally entered Hilde's quaint little home around two, both laughing and carrying arms full of bags.

"Oh Duo, thanks again for taking me out today. I really wasn't in the mood for cereal, but I didn't feel like cooking either, so it was perfect," Hilde said, setting her bags by the couch in the living room before wandering into the kitchen. Duo put the bags he was carrying down by hers, before following her into the said room. He smirked as he saw Hilde bending over slightly, looking for something to drink in the fridge.

"Anything for the lady I love," he said smoothly, wrapping his arms around her petite waist and pulling her back against his chest.

"Duo, you're such a romantic sap," Hilde said softly, chuckling. Duo ignored her, burying his face into the crook of her neck and kissing the skin there.

"So what if I am? You know you love me," he whispered into her ear, his hands running down her sides and then back up again beneath her shirt. They rested on her stomach as Hilde turned her head slightly so that she could see Duo out of the corner of her eye. Accepting the silent invitation, Duo bent down and captured her mouth with his, his eyes sliding shut-

-just as the vidphone started beeping. Duo's eyes popped open as Hilde pulled away, chuckling.

"Stop pouting, Duo," Hilde said, as Duo was doing just that, standing where she had left him with his lower lip jutting out and arms crossed.

"Stupid phone," he grumbled to himself as Hilde answered it. "I say we just disconnect the damn thing." He could remember several other occasions when they'd been interrupted by it's high beeping noises.

"Duo?" Hilde called, turning around to face him. "It's Professor G," she said, somewhat worriedly. Duo's eyebrows shot up as he moved to take the call.

"Hey G, what's up?" he asked casually, propping his elbows up on the table. He grabbed an apple from a nearby basket and bit into as he waited for an answer.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you for a couple hours now, where have you been?" came the nasal, agitated reply. Duo raised an eyebrow.

"Out," he replied simply, casting a glance at Hilde, who had taken a seat at the table, before biting into the apple again. Professor G shook his head.

"Whatever. Your sister's on a mission to Earth, I thought you might want to know." Duo promptly choked on the apple, his face turning a lovely shade of red.

"Wh-what!" he gasped out when he was able to speak again.

"Yeah, in South America," Professor G continued, oblivious to Duo's coughing. "I was going to send you the coordinates. I thought maybe you could arrange a rendezvous with her and switch back. She really isn't qualified for what they're doing." Duos eyes widened.

"Which is?" he asked.

"I'll tell you once you're on you way down. ...You ARE going to go, right?" Duo nodded his head quickly.

"Yeah, yeah...I'll contact you once I grab a shuttle. Ja," he said, terminating the call. "Hilde, babe," he started, turning to face her, but she held up a hand, smiling.

"Just go. Trio may be in danger," she said softly. "Take care though." Duo smiled at her, leaning down to kiss her soundly.

"Love ya, babe!" he called as he dashed out of the kitchen. Hilde sighed once he was gone. Sometimes she regretted ever falling in love with a Gundam pilot; it required too much worrying. At this rate, she'd have gray hair by the time she was twenty-five...

& & & &

On Earth, the other five had split up into groups of two and three after landing a good distance away from the actual base. They'd had to hike for about an hour through hot, humid terrain before Quatre and Wufei went off one way, and Trowa, Trio, and Heero went another. There turned out to be a lot more guards than they'd expected, so they had to be extra cautious, but they entered the base easily enough. Trio's heart was beating so fast she was worried that the others could hear it. She was scared out of her mind, especially since she was holding a gun that she very well might have to use. Trio'd never actually killed anyone before, though she been around death itself a lot. Suddenly a voice interrupted her thoughts as the group of three snuck down the halls.

"Trio, this is Professor G, are you there?" came a voice from Trio's earpiece. Not wanting to attract attention, she slowed down a bit, taking up the rear, before she answered.

"Yeah, I'm here," she whispered, hoping neither Trowa nor Heero would hear her. "What is it?"

"I got in contact with your brother about an hour ago."

"When will he get here?"

"Probably in about another hour, maybe two."

"That long? Shit..."

"Don't worry. Just so long the others do the work-" Trio missed the rest of what he said, because Heero was calling back at her.

"Hey, gotta go. Stay with me though, k?" she whispered into the headpiece before hurrying to catch up with the other two pilots. "What?" she asked when she got there. Heero shoved three small objects into her arms.

"We're splitting up," he said gruffly, leaning against the wall as he peered around a corner. "You take the left corridor. Check the rooms and make sure there's no explosives or weapons in them, and then put those bombs along the wall. Meet back here. If anyone gets in your way, knock them out or shoot them."

"Heero, we ALL fought in the war, I think we know what to do," Trowa commented sarcastically.

"Shut up, Trowa," Heero snarled at him. He was apparently still mad at the green-eyed circus performer. Trowa smirked and shrugged.

"Guys, guys, can't we all just get along?" Trio asked cheerfully, examining one of the bombs in her hands.

"You can shut up too, Duo," Heero said, turning his glare on her. Trio let out a breath, blowing the bangs off her forehead.

"Pull the stick out of your ass, Heero. Hilde's not with ME 24/7, but you don't see me acting like a jackass," she growled at him, seriously getting annoyed with his attitude.

"Oh, but Duo, you forget," Trowa spoke up, glancing at Heero, "Heero's like this ALL the time. It has NOTHING to do with RELENA." Trio snorted.

"Right, I forgot." Heero's glare darkened.

"Omae-"

"O korosu," Trio and Trowa finished together, sharing a sarcastic look. "We know."

"...Fall out," Heero ordered, deciding to ignore them. He glanced around the corner once more before setting off.

"So...I got the left?" Trio asked again, her nervousness creeping back.

"Yeah, I got right," Trowa replied, before he turned and went in that direction. Trio stared after him, before turning and glancing around the corner. After making sure no one was coming, she dashed across to the opposite corridor.

"Oh geez, I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing," she muttered to herself.

"Just look for any rooms and make sure no one's in them," came the nasal voice in her ear again.

"Oh, THAT helps." Coming across a door, she slowed down, peering around the side into it as she had seen Heero do. It was empty. Onto the next door!

She did this four more time, finding that the entire corridor she was in was empty of weapons AND humans.

"So...now I just set these bombs?" she asked Professor G.

"Hn, yes. Try placing them equal distances apart. How many did he give you?"

"Three."

"Put two on one wall, one on the other."

"Alright." Trio did as she was told, pressing a little button the side of them to activate them. It was entirely too quiet, she decided, as her watch beeped suddenly and seemed to echo down the hall. "Done," she said, releasing a nervous breath. "That wasn't so bad..."

"Heero has the detonator?" Professor G asked. Trio nodded before she remembered that he couldn't see her.

"Yeah, but we have to meet up with Quatre and Wufei before he sets them off," Trio replied as she made her way back to where she was supposed to meet with Heero and Trowa. "Where's Duo?"

"Entering the Earth's atmosphere as we speak. He should be arriving in a half hour."

"Great, just in time to see us blow the place up," Trio mumbled sarcastically.

"Hn." Before Trio could say anything else, a door opened from behind her, and two guards came out.

"Shit..." Trio murmured. "They must have come from upstairs."

"What? Who?" Professor G asked, but at that moment one of the guards spotted Trio.

"Hey! What're you doing here!" Trio's eyes widened and she paled, ducking quickly into one of the rooms in the hall. Shakily, she pulled out her gun.

"There's two soldier guys out there," she whispered quickly into the earpiece. "What do I do!"

"Where are you now?"

"I'm in one of the rooms."

"Well you trapped yourself in there, you're going to have to shoot them."

"WHAT!"

"Back away from the door and have your gun ready. When they break the door down, start firing." Trio did as she was told, taking in quick breaths. All too soon, someone began pounding on the door.

"Hey kid! Let us in or we'll break the door down! You're not allowed to be in here!" Trio heard one of the guards yell. Apparently they thought she was some kid playing around in the base. "I'm warning you!" the voice came again.

'God, where're Heero and Trowa when you need them?' Trio thought despairingly as she held up the gun and aimed it at the door.

"That's it, we're coming in!" Trio sucked in a breath, and as soon as the door broke down she began firing.

From the opposite side of the corridor, Trowa heard the guns firing. Immediately picking up his pace, he began to run swiftly back to where he was supposed to meet the others, cursing under his breath. He arrived at the intersection just as Heero did, and the two shared a brief glance.

"Duo," they said simultaneously, ducking behind the wall as an alarm went off.

"Great, we've been discovered," Heero muttered, cocking his gun. He shot at a random soldier that came running down the hall. "Leave it to him to get caught."

"Come on," Trowa said, once the coast was clear. They started running down the hall Trio was in, but paused when they saw her jump out of a room, over two bodies that were lying on the floor.

"Let's go!" she ordered as she ran to meet them, her eyes wide and face pale. She'd just killed two people! God... The other two didn't question her, just took off running beside her, occasionally firing at any guards that filed in behind or in front of them. A bullet grazed Heero's arm at one point, causing him to stumble for a second, but he quickly picked up the pace again as Trowa turned and threw a grenade behind them.

"Should we contact Wufei and Quatre?" Trowa yelled above the sound of gunfire. He heard Heero yell back an affirmative, so he pulled out a walkie-talkie he'd been carrying. "Wufei? You there!" he said into it. He got a response after a few seconds.

"This is Quatre, Trowa! What happened?"

"Some guards spotted Duo. Are you heading out?"

"Yeah, we're almost to the entrance, you?"

"Same."

"Trowa!" Heero's voice broke in. "Tell them I'm setting the detonator now!" Trowa nodded, but did a double take at the Japanese youth running behind him.

"NOW! Heero we'll never get out of here in time!"

"Maybe you haven't noticed, Trowa," Heero started, grunting as a bullet whizzed past his head, "but there are a lot more soldiers here than we thought! And they're closing in on us!" He threw another grenade over his shoulder wincing slightly at the explosion it made. "I'll give us two minutes! We'll be out of here by then!"

"But we might still be too close!" Trowa yelled back.

"We'll take our chances!" Trowa released a breath, and relayed the news to Quatre. "Two-minute countdown, starting now!" Heero said, pressing down on the detonator. "LET'S GO!"

Throughout this conversation, Trio had been yelling at Professor G, assuring herself that the others would be too preoccupied to notice her.

"Where the HELL is my brother, G!" she screamed, panting. She was getting tired quickly.

"By the time he gets there it will all be over," Professor G replied calmly.

"You're not helping!" Trio tripped, stumbling slightly and almost falling. "I'm not going to make it out of here!"

"Yes you will."

"No, Heero just started a two-minute countdown, I'm slowing them down!"

"Trio, you're almost out, just keep running!" Professor G said back to her, finally raising his voice a little. Trio ripped the earpiece out of her ear and held it up to her mouth.

"I can't do this!" she screamed into it. She was falling a little farther behind the other two.

"Yes you ca-" Trio didn't hear the rest as a bullet nicked her shoulder, causing her to drop the headpiece. And she wasn't about to go back and get it. Instead, she turned and began firing over her shoulder at the guards behind her. She was seriously about ready to give up, but as fate would have it, at that moment, she saw the door in front of them.

"Thank God," she mumbled, finding the energy somewhere in her to make the last dash.

"Forty-five seconds!" she heard Heero yell. She was going to make it.

& & & &

Professor G, on the other hand, had no idea if she would or not.

"Trio? Trio!" he asked from where he was sitting in a remote colony somewhere above the Earth. The room was darkened, and he really just looked plain creepy sitting there all by himself, but no one else was around to notice this. "Damn it," he muttered. Quickly, he switched lines, trying to contact Duo. "Duo? Come in Duo!"

"Duo here," came the scratchy reply. There was a lot of static on the line.

"Duo, I've lost contact with your sister," Professor G said bluntly. "She got cut off and I can't reach her anymore." He heard Duo let out of string of curses. "You might want to pick up a medic or something on your way down.

"Did that already," Duo replied. "I contacted Sally Po right when I took off."

"Good. How far away are you?"

"I should be landing in about ten minutes. Sally's right behind me."

"Don't get caught in the explosion."

"I won't."

"Good luck."

Duo chuckled darkly. "Luck is never on my side," he said, before he terminated the line. "You'd better be okay, Trio," he muttered to himself.

& & & &

"Do you see Quatre and Wufei anywhere?" Trowa asked as he, Heero, and Trio broke out of the base into the hot sunlight. They continually shot over their shoulders at anyone who followed them.

"No," Heero answered, looking around. He glanced at the detonator in his hand. "They've got twenty-three seconds."

"Damn it," Trowa mumbled.

"I doubt we'll get far enough away," Trio said, pushing herself to run faster.

"We'll make it," came Heero's reply. He took another look over his shoulder. "There they are," he said, pointing to a door south of them where Quatre and Wufei came running out.

"Hurry your asses up, Quatre!" Trowa yelled into the walkie-talkie. "You've got fourteen seconds!"

"We'll make it- shit!" Trowa heard, and then there was the sound of something hitting the ground.

"Quatre!" There were a few deep breaths before a voice finally answered.

"Wufei tripped!" came a hurried reply.

"Five seconds!" Heero yelled. "Take cover!" He dove behind a bunch of rocks, Trio and Trowa following. All three huddled together, covering their heads.

"Then get him OUT OF THERE!" Trowa yelled.

"We're fi-" Quatre started to say, but he was cut off as the base behind them finally exploded. The force of it sent Trowa, Heero, and Trio themselves hurdling through the air, and they'd been a good distance farther from the building then Wufei and Quatre had. They landed with loud thumps some feet away, all three groaning. The dust settled in around them, along with the heat from the blast. Heero was the first one to move, pushing himself up on all fours, coughing and hacking from the smoke.

"I used to be able to pull of missions like this by myself," he mumbled. Trowa, who heard him, chuckled slightly from his position on his back, before his face paled.

"Quatre?" he asked, holding the walkie-talkie up to his face. "You there? Quatre! Wufei! Come in!"

"T-trowa?" came a weary reply.

"Quatre! Are you two alright?"

"I...I think so," Quatre replied. Trowa could hear him calling for Wufei. "Yeah," he said after a few seconds. "Wufei's here too. I think he broke his ankle though, it looks pretty bad. No wait..." Quatre paused and Trowa could hear Wufei's voice in the background. "Oh...Wufei says some cement fell on his leg and he thinks his SHIN is broken, not just his ankle." Trowa winced.

"Can you get him over here?"

"Where's 'here'?" At that point, Trowa glanced over to Heero, who was now standing and looking around for the blonde boy.

"North-east from where you are. Can you see Heero?" There was a pause on the line, before he heard Quatre reply.

"Yeah, yeah ok, I see him. We'll be there in a few."

"See ya," Trowa said, before he clicked the small machine off and let his arm drop to the ground. He let out a deep breath, closing his eyes as Heero came over and plopped onto the ground beside him.

"We're getting useless in our old age," Heero said, running a hand through his hair, and then wincing because it was the same arm that had gotten shot. Trowa laughed.

"What happened to just a simple 'Mission Accomplished'?"

Heero smirked, shrugging. Then he paused, glancing about quickly. "Where's Duo?"

Trowa sat up abruptly. "Um...I have no idea."

"Duo!" Heero called out, standing up. Trowa quickly followed suit.

"DUO!"

"O-over here," came a weak reply. Heero and Trowa looked at each other quickly before running to where they heard the voice. They found Trio lying in a curled up position on the ground not too far away.

"Duo, you ok?" Heero asked, kneeling beside the braided teen. He put a hand on Trio's shoulder. Trio was taking in gasping, painful breaths.

"N-no," she muttered. She glanced up as a shadow fell over her, glad to see Trowa standing there. He was looking at her worriedly.

"He's holding his stomach," Trowa told Heero. The Japanese teen nodded, gently turning Trio over so that she was lying on her back. His eyes narrowed as he noticed her hands wrapped around a piece of jagged shrapnel that was jutting out from the side of her stomach. Above him, he heard Trowa draw in a long breath. "Well that's gonna have to come out," he muttered. Heero nodded.

"Take a deep breath, Duo," he said, and waited until Trio did so before he pulled the piece out. Trio gasped in pain, her hands flying to the spot as blood began seeping out.

"It was imbedded almost two inches," Heero said, showing the bloodied stone to Trowa. "Come on, we've got to stop that blood flow." At that moment, Quatre emerged from the trees about ten feet away, supporting Wufei who was limping and had an arm wrapped around Quatre's shoulders. Both were covered with dirt streaks and scratches, but then again so were the other three.

"Oh no, is he ok?" Quatre asked, pausing where he was standing. Trowa wordlessly held up the shrapnel, his eyes still on Trio. "Oh..." Quatre and Wufei didn't move any closer for the time being. Heero nodded to them briefly before turning back to Trio. Lifting up the edge of her black shirt, he looked as if he was about to tear it, but Trio jerked away before he got the chance to.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked, eyes going wide. Heero gave her an odd look.

"I need to get a good look at that wound, and we need to get it covered." Trio shook her head rapidly.

"Nonono, it's fine. Just cover it from the outside, you don't need to look at it."

"Duo, your shirt's all bloody. It'll get infected," Heero said, grabbing her shirt again, but she rolled away once more, gasping as she did so.

"I'm fine, honest!" she exclaimed, curling into a ball again. Heero let out an agitated sigh.

"Duo, what is your problem? I need to look at it properly, stop being a baby!" When Trio didn't move, Heero's eyes narrowed. "Trowa, would you hold him down?" he asked the taller boy. Trowa nodded, ignoring Trio's panicked look. Kneeling down, he grabbed Trio's arms and pushed her back so that she was lying on her back again. Once there, he positioned himself behind her head and held her arms down. Trio would not be beaten though, and immediately began kicking her legs around.

"Heero, STOP!" she screamed out, eyes starting to stream from her eyes as Heero promptly sat himself down on her legs.

"Look, Duo, I don't know what's wrong with you but if it helps any, I'm NOT GOING TO HURT YOU," Heero said slowly, trying to look Trio in the eye. Trio paused briefly, sniffing.

"Please don't," she whispered pathetically, worried more about her brother's secret than them finding out that she was a girl. Heero rolled his eyes.

"I have to. Look, you're bleeding even more now from all that rolling around. You're such a baka, Duo," Heero said harshly, lowering his eyes and bunching up Trio's shirt in his hands again. Without another word, he quickly ripped it up the middle.

* * *

Hehe. I love cliffhangers. ;)

-Maxine


	9. Chapter 8

While You Were Gone - Chapter 8

* * *

It took a second for Heero to register what exactly he was seeing, but when it finally did he nearly fell off of Trio as he quickly scrambled to move away from her. Blinking his wide eyes rapidly, he sat in the dirt, legs sprawled out in front of him, leaning back on his hands. Trowa's facial expression was nearly identical to Heero's and he'd abruptly released Trio's arms when he saw the tape wrapped tightly around her chest. With her newly freed arms, Trio covered herself by crossing her arms, glaring up at the boys surrounding her indignantly.

"What are you staring at?" she muttered darkly, breaking the uncomfortable silence that now surrounded them, though it didn't affect their stupefied expressions at all. From where they were standing, Quatre and Wufei both wore similar looks of disbelief as well, but Quatre was the one who recovered first. He gently removed Wufei's arm from his shoulder and set the Chinese teen on the ground, being careful not to jerk his injured leg around. Quickly he rushed to where Trio was, pushing Trowa away.

"Give him-HER some room guys," he ordered, watching as Heero and Trowa numbly nodded and did as told, backing up a few feet. Ripping the sleeve from his shirt, Quatre rolled it up into a ball before looking down at Trio. "Hey," he said softly, "I've got twenty-nine sisters, so I'm used to dealing with women. Do you mind if I touch you?" Trio smirked, averting her violet eyes from his aquamarine ones.

"Quatre don't go acting all mushy on me now," she said. "Touch away! I'm fine with it." Quatre nodded before pressing the material to her wound, trying to stop the blood flow. Trio winced briefly, but that was it.

"...Duo?" Heero questioned warily, still not believing what he was looking at. He was rapidly trying to remember a time that he'd seen Duo shirtless, but was coming up blank at the moment. Was Duo really a...a girl?

For probably the first time since she'd started posing as her brother, Trio reacted to the name immediately, as if it was her own. "Hmm?" she replied, tilting her head to the side to get a better view of Heero, who had just paled several shades. She also heard Trowa draw in a quick breath from behind her.

"Aww, fuck," Heero muttered, running a hand through his hair disbelievingly.

"No way," Trowa also mumbled, his mind blowing up with all sorts of questions. In any case, he was relieved that he hadn't kissed another guy... Quatre sent him a hard look, as if telling him to be quiet, as he continued holding the shirt in place. At least the blood was starting to slow.

Wufei was still sitting about ten feet away, staring in shock at scene before him. One of the Gundam pilots was a WOMAN? Wufei was so deep in shock and thought that he somehow managed not to hear the sound of the small space shuttle landing awkwardly amongst the rubble of the blown-up base. No one else heard it either, nor did they hear the second shuttle landing closely after it. It wasn't until he heard the rustling of leaves behind him that Wufei finally realized someone was coming. He glanced back curiously, yelping as he noticed a figure barreling towards him. He ducked quickly, but soon figured out that it wasn't enough as Duo, who apparently wasn't watching where he was running, tripped over him and went flying for about three feet before he hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Itai..." Duo mumbled, sitting up and brushing the dirt and leaves off of his shirt. Wufei's eyes widened again as he sat up, shook his head dazedly, and stared at the newcomer. "Eh, sorry Wufei!" Duo said as he stood up finally. He quickly gave Wufei a two-fingered solute before he dashed off to the other four. Wufei only stared after him in shock, blinking a few times before he heard someone else call his name.

"Wufei?" Sally asked, stepping into view and kneeling beside the Chinese teen. "Are you ok?" Wufei blinked at the older Preventor. Would wonders never cease?

"Uh, yeah, yeah I'm fine," he mumbled, attempting to stand up. A searing pain in his leg abruptly reminded him that he was indeed NOT fine, and he plopped back onto the ground. "Actually no, I'm not alright," he said, wincing. "I think I broke my leg..." Sally cringed slightly.

"Well, don't move it, ok? I'm going to check and see what's going on over there, and then I'll come back and set it for you, alright?" Wufei nodded as Sally began to stand up.

"Wait, Sally, was that...was that Duo?" he asked, peering up at the tall blonde. Sally smiled.

"Yeah, it was, why do you ask?" Wufei just shook his head.

"No reason...except that I'm horribly, horribly confused." Sally chuckled.

"Oh yeah, Duo told me what's going on. Everything will come together in a few minutes, just wait." With that, she hurried to make sure everyone else was ok. Wufei stared after her.

"Something's going on?" he mumbled, raising an eyebrow. He sighed. "Whatever..."

Duo, after leaving Wufei, had quickly rushed to where his sister was. He slid to the ground beside her, as if sliding to a base in baseball, and looked her over worriedly.

"-The hell!" he heard Heero exclaim from his right. Across from him, on the other side of Trio, Quatre was doing double takes between the two braided twins, and his eyes promptly rolled back in his head as he fainted. Trowa could only splutter nonsensically as he looked back and forth between the two as well.

"DUO!" Trio exclaimed, ignoring all the others around her as she reached up pulled him down for a hug. Then she abruptly pushed him away and slapped his shoulder. "Where the hell have you been!" Duo smirked.

"Sorry, babe, I know I'm a little late. You ok?" Trio just shook her head slightly, her eyes welling up with tears, before the dam finally broke.

"Oh God, Duo! I was SO scared! There were so many people and they were firing at us and bullets were flying past INCHES away from my HEAD! I thought I was going to DIE! And I got so tired and I actually had to KILL people!" Trio wailed, hugging her brother's arm close to her. Duo smiled softly, hauling her into his lap just as Sally appeared next to him.

"Shh, it's ok, I'm here now, Trio. It's all over," he said gently, wrapping his arms around her. Trio continued to sob as Sally silently checked over her wound. "It's all over," Duo continued, rocking her back and forth. From where he was sitting, Trowa scratched the side of his head confusedly.

"Trio?" he questioned, when Heero crawled over and sat next to him. Heero shrugged.

"I have NO idea. ...The one holding her is Duo, right?"

& & & &

The next hour flew by in a confused blur. Duo was busy fretting over Trio's injuries, despite the fact that Sally had told him repeatedly that she would be fine. Wufei's leg was wrapped up in a makeshift cast/leg brace, and with the help of Heero he'd managed to hobble over to the aircraft they were using to get out of the area. Still deep in shock over the latest turn-of-events, Quatre continually was asking if Trio was REALLY Duo's twin, and was wondering aloud why Duo had never told them about her. Sally had called in Preventors to sweep the area for any sort of clues that might show if there was evidence of any other bases of the group, so they left the shuttle Duo had hijacked for them to deal with, and piled into the one Sally had flown down. By the time Trio and Wufei had been strapped down and the others' minor injuries had been dealt with, the sun was setting and a cold air had crept through the forest.

And it was at this point that Duo was forced to explain, finally cracking under the pressure of four irritated and confused Gundam pilots' glares focused on him.

"So...let me get this straight," Heero said slowly, sometime after the explanation, fighting to keep the growl from leaving his throat. He glanced at Trio briefly, noticing that she busy twiddling her thumbs and looking out the window, feigning innocence to having anything to do with the whole matter. "This...girl is your..._twin_ sister?" When Duo nodded, he continued, "And she's been posing as you since you've been gone on some sort of mission that the rest didn't know about?"

"Uh, yeah, that's about the sum of it," Duo said, nodding again as he crossed his arms behind his head. He was sitting directly across from Heero, shifting nervously in his seat as the other boy stared him down. Quatre cocked his head to the side thoughtfully from his spot beside Heero, and next to him was the other fidgeting braided twin. Wufei was taking up the two seats beside next to Duo, since his leg was propped up on one of them, and he was muttering something incoherently under his breath. Sally was in the cockpit, piloting the shuttle, and Trowa was sitting in a single seat at the back of the carrier, looking slightly troubled, but not really upset, like Heero. Actually, Trowa had been awfully calm about the whole situation, Duo noted vaguely.

"How long have you been gone?" Quatre asked quietly, shifting his gaze to Trio as well. Duo scratched his head, scrunching up his face slightly in thought.

"Er...about...eh, Trio, how long?"

"About a month, a little more maybe," Trio answered distantly, still staring out the window. Quatre snapped his eyes back to Duo in shock.

"A month?" Wufei asked beforeanyone else could get the words out. "Damn it, why didn't any of us notice?"

"Because we look so much alike?" Trio shot back, finally turning away from the window to glare at the Chinese teen. "It's not a real ego booster, lemme tell ya, when a bunch of guys have no idea that you're a girl."

"Ano...but, you don't really look alike at all," Quatre said softly, glancing back and forth between the two of them. With the two of them next to each other, it was easy to see the differences. Duo was definitely more broad-shouldered, while Trio was slightly petite looking. Her hair was actually a shade lighter, as well, but her eyes sparkled the same violet. "Well, maybe you do," Quatre amended, "It's just, well...I don't know, it's easy to see the difference!"

"Maybe it's not that Trio looks like Duo, but that Duo looks like her," Wufei spoke up, crossing his arms. "You can't say he's not feminine, I mean, what with the braid and all."

Heero snorted in agreement. "Yeah, that MUST be it." Duo sniffed, turning up his nose up at the others with a "hmph," while Trio chuckled.

"I was really nervous you guys would find out," she said, glancing at Trowa out of the corner of her eye as he shifted his gaze to her briefly before turning it forward again. Trio sighed, before continuing, "I mean, I thought the whole pool thing would be a dead giveaway." It took a second for the incident to register in the others' minds, but when it did, Heero promptly smacked his forehead with his palm, gritting his teeth in frustration, while Quatre and Wufei let out groans simultaneously. Even Trowa's eyes had widened when he remembered exactly what had happened, and for not the first time that day he let out a breath in relief, sagging back in his seat.

"Guys, we're getting bad, we should have picked up on_something_ a long time ago, especially THAT day," Quatre chuckled, burying his face into his hands. Duo snorted.

"Yeah, that is pretty pathetic, guys," he said cheerfully. He was rewarded with more glares.

"Yuy, she was able to hold you under," Wufei commented, cocking his head at the other boy. Heero scowled.

"Relena figured it out the day she got there," Duo spoke up again.

"She caught me coming out of the bathroom in a towel," Trio said flatly, throwing a pillow at her brother half-heartedly.

"Relena knew!" Heero asked in disbelief, snapping his eyes towards Trio. "Why didn't she say anything?"

"Uh, gee, maybe because I asked her NOT to?" Trio replied sarcastically. "It was nice having another girl around. We had some interesting conversations..." Trio trailed off, smirking at Heero, who blinked at her in return. "VERY interesting..." Trio's smirk widened as Heero's face flushed a soft red.

"What do you mean, 'interesting'?" he asked warily. Trio glanced innocently towards the ceiling.

"Oh, we just talked about some things that happened during the war," she replied, throwing a glance towards Quatre. "When she became queen, and before that when you and Quatre were staying in the Sank Kingdom..." Again she trailed off, thoroughly satisfied when the blush in Heero's cheeks deepened and his eyes widened almost comically.

"E-eh, s-she told you!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking towards the end of his outburst.

"Told her what?" Quatre asked, trying to remember something important that might have happened during their stay. Wufei leaned forward slightly in his seat waiting for an answer.

"N-nothing!" Heero said quickly, darting his eyes about the room. He coughed slightly, clearing his throat. "It was nothing."

This time, Duo smirked. "Oh please, Heero, don't be so modest!" he drawled out. "It was a pretty big something, after all."

Heero's widened eyes narrowed dangerously as the color in his face flared up again. "You told HIM?" he hissed at Trio. The braided girl shrugged.

"It might have slipped out."

"Shit," Heero swore, ducking his head in a futile attempt to hide the blush that everyone had already seen. "Of anyone you could have told, you told HIM. Now I'll never hear the end of it..." Trio chuckled.

"Would someone please tell me what you're talking about?" Quatre asked exasperatedly.

"Isn't it obvious, Quatre?" Trowa finally spoke up, causing the others to jump slightly at the unexpected voice. He smirked at the blushing teen. Heero glared at him.

"Damn you for being so perceptive, Trowa," he glared out. Trowa shrugged.

"I was already on your bad side with this whole Relena thing, so I figured another comment wouldn't hurt." At that moment, Wufei blinked owlishly, realization dawning in his eyes.

"Ooooooh," he said, resting back in his seat. "I see." Heero turned his glare towards him.

"See WHAT?" Quatre cried, turning towards Wufei now. Wufei spared him a glance, before chuckling and shaking his head.

"I always thought Relena would be the type to wait until marriage," he mused. Quatre practically choked at that, wide eyes swinging towards Heero, who was currently turned around in his seat and banging his head against the wall.

"Heero! You- while we were- but- Heero, what if she had gotten pregnant or something?" Heero stopped banging his abruptly.

"Well she didn't!" he said, sounding alarmed. Quatre shook his head.

"But she could have!"

"Guys, calm down, nothing happened so don't worry about it," Trio said, smiling at the others' antics.

"I can't believe she TOLD you," Heero muttered, sliding down in his seat.

"Uh, Heero, while she was staying at my house...you two didn't...?"

"No, we didn't," Heero bit out, glaring at the blonde from beneath his bangs. Quatre held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"I was just wondering..."

"I still don't understand how she managed to find out the day she got there, and we didn't know anything until just now," Wufei muttered, glancing again at Trio. The girl shrugged at him.

"She_was_ a very good actor," Quatre answered, looking at Trio as well.

"Trowa noticed," Duo spoke up, turning to look at him. He was slightly surprised to see that Trowa's eyes had widened a little and he suddenly looked somewhat uncomfortable.

"Eh, Duo-" Trio started, also looking nervous, but Heero interrupted her.

"What do you mean,_Trowa noticed_?" he asked, sending an annoyed glance at Trowa. Duo shrugged.

"Trio told me that he told her that she wasn't me." This time it was Trio who slapped her forehead, blushing slightly.

Heero raised an eyebrow. "Trowa?" he questioned. Trowa flushed a little.

"Well I_told_ you I thought 'Duo' seemed different," Trowa said defensively.

Heero nodded. "Yeah, but you didn't tell us you thought he was a GIRL."

Trowa shrugged. "I wasn't really sure..."

"How would you have noticed she was a girl?" Wufei asked, staring at him suspiciously.

"I...spend a lot of time observing people..." Trowa said, fidgeting slightly in his seat. Trio had buried her head in another pillow at this point.

"You HAVE been acting a little odd around D-Trio, recently," Quatre added to the conversation. Trowa's blush deepened.

"Well..."

"Trio? What happened?" Duo asked bluntly, his voice almost dangerously low. He narrowed his eyes at her flustered appearance.

"N-nothing! Nothing happened!" Trio assured him. Duo groaned.

"Trio, didn't I tell you NOT to have sex with him!"

"DUO!" Trio exclaimed, whipping yet another pillow at him. "We didn't! Nothing happened! I convinced him that I was you, honest!" Quatre had nearly fallen out of his seat by this point, while Trowa, Wufei, and Heero all looked a little shocked at what they were saying.

"Well how did you convince him?" Wufei asked, slightly confused. "It's not like you had any real way of proving it..." Trowa and Trio both became unnervingly silent, completely avoiding looking at each other.

"Trowa, what the hell did you do to my sister?" asked Duo a little resignedly. Trowa didn't answer. Instead, he slowly glanced over at Trio catching her gaze and holding it. The two had a silent conversation through their eyes, before Trio smiled softly and shrugged. Trowa inhaled deeply, smirking at her, before slouching in his seat slightly and looking upwards. He gestured with his hand towards Trio, who lifted her chin and looked at Duo evenly.

"He kissed me," she said bluntly, watching amusedly as the gravity seemed to increase, causing everyone but herself and Trowa to plummet towards the floor.

"You just said you convinced him that you were me!" Duo cried.

"I DID!" Trio yelled right back. "...After he kissed me."

"But..." Duo started, before trailing off, the gears in his head working furiously. "But then...then he would have thought that..."

"That I kissed YOU?" Trowa asked, crossing his arms and looking at the American pilot. Duo nodded. "Yeah, that IS what I thought. It...kinda freaked me out."

"Why the hell did you kiss her?" Heero asked, looking at Trowa oddly. The unibanged boy shrugged, blushing a bit again.

"Er...because I was trying to get her to admit that she WASN'T Duo. And it's not like she didn't kiss me back!"

"You kissed him back!" Duo asked Trio disbelievingly. When his sister nodded, he sighed. "I knew it. I KNEW you would fall for one of them. Damn it!"

"Hey, I didn't_fall_ for anyone! He just surprised me, that's all!" Trio said quickly, the color rising in her cheeks. She winced inwardly when Trowa stiffened a little, staring at the floor. "I-I mean...um..." She was saved from having to say anything else by the shuttle landing suddenly with a light thud.

"Are we there already?" Quatre asked nobody in particular, glancing around. He was answered when Sally walked back to help Wufei and Trio get off the flight.

"We're here, guys, everyone out!" she announced cheerfully.

"Where's 'here?' I thought we were going back to space," Duo said, pulling himself out of his seat and stretching his arms above his head. His back cracked a few times with the action.

"No, the Sank Kingdom's much closer and has a good hospital I can take you all to," Sally replied.

"We're at the Sank Kingdom?" Heero asked, not sure if he'd heard correctly. He let out an exasperated breath when Sally nodded. "Go figure..."

& & & &

"So."

"So...?"

"So, you kissed Trowa?"

"Damn it, Duo, would you let that drop already?" From where he was straddling a chair beside Trio's hospital bed, Duo chuckled. It was late into the night now, and the six of their little group were staying in the hospital for the night. The other four guys had their own room, but Trio's was next to theirs and Duo said he'd stay in there for the night.

"You know, I was thinking it over," Duo said softly, gazing at his sister, "and from Trowa's point of view...I mean, the poor guy's probably confused as hell. First he thinks you're me, but then he notices some differences, then he figures out that you might be a girl, then he gets attracted to you, then he kisses you...only for you to somehow convince him that you're NOT a girl. So then he thinks he's attracted to a guy. But now he knows you ARE a girl. So what's he supposed to do?"

Trio sighed, averting her eyes. "Don't you think I thought of all that already?" she asked. "I mean, I feel bad for what happened, but...you asked what he's supposed to do? Well what am _I_ supposed to do?"

Duo shrugged. "It's your move."

Sighing again, Trio decided it was time to change the topic. "Have you decided when to propose to Hilde?" she asked, grinning at Duo when he blinked at the sudden question.

"Uh...I dunno, in a year or so."

"Can you wait that long?"

Duo paused. "...I can try..." he said weakly, smiling abashedly. Trio chuckled. She was about to say something else, but a knock at the door cut her off.

"Come in!" she called. She wasn't too surprised when Trowa appeared behind the door.

"Duo," he nodded at the other teen. "Can I speak to your sister?"

Duo grinned. "Sure thing, Trowa," he replied, standing and heading out of the room. He paused as he passed the green-eyed boy, sending him a meaningful look out of the corner of his eye. And he looked as serious as Trio had ever seen him. He waited until Trowa nodded before continuing on his way. "I'm gonna go get some coffee," Duo called as he disappeared around the corner. The room was uncomfortably silent once he was gone.

"Sit down," Trio finally said, gesturing to the abandoned chair. "What do you need?" Trowa sat slowly, cocking his head as he gazed thoughtfully at the girl who had unknowingly given him so much trouble. God, she was beautiful...

"You," Trowa blurted out, before abruptly widening his eyes and slapping a hand over his mouth. Crap, that WASN'T what he'd wanted to say. He'd meant to say something along the lines of, "I think you know."

Trio simply blinked at the outburst.

"That's not what I meant," Trowa said quickly, lowering his hand from his mouth. "I...what I wanted to say was...I mean-" He was cut off by Trio's soft chuckling. The other girl had repositioned herself so that her elbow was resting on the railing around the bed, and her chin rested on the top of her closed fist. She smiled gently at Trowa.

"I lied," she said softly, almost so that Trowa couldn't hear her. He blinked, relaxing slightly in his seat and leaning towards her a bit.

"What do you mean?"

"When I said I hadn't fallen for anyone...I lied," Trio repeated, sending a surge a hope through Trowa that settled as a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. He swallowed thickly.

"I'd hoped so," he admitted, allowing a small smile to grace his features. "I...look, I don't really know you very well, since you've been acting like Duo, or maybe that IS what you're like...but what I mean is...um...were...were you planning on going back to L2?" Trowa finally got out, cursing himself for stumbling over the words like that.

"Should I?" Trio asked. "The only things waiting for me back there are my friends, but I've made more here. I quit my job." Trowa let out a breath.

"Well, Quatre's house is big enough, I'm sure you noticed. If...if you wanted to stay there for a while with us...with me...I'm sure he wouldn't mind." The only answer Trowa got was Trio lunging forward to capture his mouth with hers. He froze for all of a second, before leaning into the kiss. How long had he wanted to do this? The rest of the world blurred out around him as he focused only on the girl in front of him. He vaguely noticed her hands clenching the front of his shirt, and somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered when his arms had wrapped themselves around her.

"Hey, have you seen Duo-GAAH!" Heero's voice interrupted the two, breaking them apart immediately, though their hands and arms remained where they were. Trowa turned slightly to see Heero with a hand over his chest, eyes closed as he took in deep breaths. When his eyes opened, he glanced apologetically at the two. "I thought that was Duo," he explained quickly. "It scared me for a second." Trio snorted and buried her head in Trowa's neck. Trowa unconsciously rubbed his hand in circles on her back.

"Thought who was me?" Duo said as he popped up beside Heero, sipping from a large mug. He nearly spit the coffee out when his eyes found his baby sister wrapped up in Trowa's arms. As it was, he choked on it in his hurry to swallow. "What is this!" he cried, gesturing wildly to the two. "Honestly, I leave for a minute and you two are already making out. Good Lord!" Trio lifted her head slightly to stare at her brother. Smirking, she unclenched her hands from Trowa's shirt wrapped them loosely around his neck, causing him to lower his gaze back to her. Gently, she pressed a kiss to the curve of his neck, smiling widely as Duo visibly twitched. Oh yes, she definitely knew how to provoke her brother.

"Something wrong, Duo?" Trio asked sweetly, disregarding the fact that Trowa's face had gone slightly red at the act.

"If you weren't already injured..." Duo trailed off, narrowing his eyes at the two. "Just wait till I get you back on L2." Trio grinned widely, causing Duo to eye her warily.

"Oh but, Duo, I'm not going back to L2," she said innocently. "I'm staying at Quatre's for a while." Duo's hand clenched around the mug.

"Who gave you permission to do that!" he exclaimed.

"Who said I needed permission?" Trio shot back at him.

"I DID!"

"Oh calm down, Duo. It's not that big a deal," Quatre spoke up as he walked up behind the two in the doorway. The blonde smirked. "She has MY permission." Trio grinned and stuck her tongue out at Duo.

"Ha, so there!"

"Who asked you, Quatre?" Duo grumbled out. Quatre shrugged.

"No one, I was going to get Wufei some coffee, since he can't get up, and I heard you all. I'll let you continue your argument now, while I go tell Wufei the good news." Before Duo could say anything, Quatre walked off again.

"See that, Duo, you've been outvoted," said Trio. Duo let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Fine, fine," he said, as if it really WAS his decision to make. Trio grinned again, before pulling Trowa down to her again, picking up where they'd been interrupted. "Hey hey hey! None of that!" Duo ordered, stomping over to the two.

"We're going to have to make sure they have two rooms in two completely different hallways," Heero mused quietly as he watched Duo try to break his sister and Trowa apart.

"Noooo! My baby sister's all grown up! She won't even listen to me even more!" Duo cried out when it finally registered that they were completely ignoring him. He fell to his knees and keeled over sideways, clutching his heart as if he was dying. "The horror!" he continued, looking extremely pleased with himself as Trio finally broke away from Trowa so that she could throw her head back and laugh out loud.

"Your sister's a good kisser, Duo," Trowa commented idly, knowing it would set Duo off. He ran his hands down Trio's sides again.

"HEY! HANDS STAY OUTSIDE THE CLOTHING!" Duo yelled, sitting up and glaring at the circus performer for all he was worth. Trowa just laughed at him, and even Heero had to chuckle from the doorway. Just when they were all calming down, an outburst from Wufei in the room next to them set them off again.

"You mean she's STAYING?"

**¡END!**

* * *

There's still an epilogue, which I'll post tomorrow. Thanks for reading:)

-Maxine


	10. Epilogue

While You Were Gone - Epilogue

* * *

Duo had lied.

He hadn't meant to, but it seemed Hilde had been getting impatient with him anyway.

Rather than waiting for a year like he'd told Trio, Duo proposed to Hilde only a few months after the whole mission incident.

...Not that Trio minded.

The wedding was small and quaint, taking place in an old church on L2 that had somehow managed to escape the Eve Wars fairly unscathed. It was old and looked it, the white paint more of a light gray and in more places than not it was peeling. The air that wafted through the drafty halls was think and smelled musty; and thank God it didn't rain on that special day, or the groom wouldn't have been able to see the bride as she walked down the aisle, either because of the lack of light or the fact that umbrellas would have been blocking his view. Despite the obvious setbacks, the old chapel had a regal air about it, and the stained glass windows that lined the walls let in the spray of sunshine that did indeed grace the day, lighting up the room with splashes of colors.

Hilde thought it was beautiful and knew it was the perfect location for the most important day of her life.

Duo didn't notice, as he was too busy hopping around nervously and trying NOT to get cold feet.

"Would you calm down?" Heero growled out exasperatedly from his place beside Duo at the alter. He had his hands clasped lightly behind his back, more to keep them from trying to strangle the braided pilot than anything else.

"I can't help it Heero, I've never gotten married before," Duo whispered back, shifting from foot to foot as he glanced anxiously over the crowd, waiting for the procession to start.

"It's not that bad, really," Wufei commented lightly from his spot beside Heero.

"Wufei, you didn't even know Meiran before you married her," Trowa said quietly, smirking at his Chinese friend. Wufei turned his nose up at him slightly.

"That's not the point."

"Duo, stop fiddling with your tie, it's going to come undone," Quatre spoke up, sending his friend a sideways glance.

"Sorry, sorry," Duo said quickly, lowering his quaking hands and holding them behind his back like Heero. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before blinking and straightening up as soft music began playing. Rocking back on his heels gently, he muttered, "Ooooh boy, here we go..." Heero glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes and jabbed him lightly with his elbow, smirking playfully.

"Duo's getting' married," he sang quietly, his baritone voice rumbling deep in his throat. He turned his eyes forward again as Relena stepped onto the aisle, decked out in her light blue bridesmaid dress. "And he's gonna be a father," Heero continued, glancing at Duo again.

"She's pregnant?" Duo hissed quickly, ignoring the fact that Heero was actually being playful for once, not to mention he was SINGING, and only focusing on what he'd said. He looked startled and panicked all of a sudden. Heero smirked again, rocking back on his heels like Duo had and glancing towards the rafters.

"She will be eventually, and then I'll get stuck babysitting or something." Duo exhaled in relief, shooting Heero a glare and digging his heel into the other man's toes.

"Don't DO that. Damn it, you're making me nervous again." Heero shrugged, sending Relena a small smile when her eyes met his.

"That's my job," he replied. The next bridesmaid stepped out into view then, and Duo inhaled sharply, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Shit, who picked out those dresses again?" he growled quietly, leaning over just a bit towards Heero.

"Hilde."

"I'm gonna kill her, she did that just to spite me."

"Duo, your sister's quite capable of wearing a dress like that. It looks good on her," the Perfect Soldier commented, quickly running his eyes down Trio's form. The dresses Hilde had picked out were indeed very beautiful...they were just something that any overprotective brother or father wouldn't want to see their sister or daughter in. The straps across Trio's shoulders were thin, and didn't seem to be any help in holding the dress up. The front cut low in a slight V-shape, but didn't show an indecent amount of cleavage. It was fairly tight, not leaving much to the imagination from Trio's neck to lower waist, where it suddenly flared out slightly. The back of the dress had crisscrossed straps going about halfway down, and there was a slit on the right side of the dress that went to mid-thigh. All in all, it showed too much skin, in Duo's humble opinion anyway.

"She's too young to be wearing something like that," Duo muttered, trying not to cross his arms and glare at his younger sister. He also had an urge to find the nearest coat and run out into the aisle to cover her with it.

"Trio's eighteen, Duo," Heero reminded him. Duo scowled.

"No she's not." Heero raised an eyebrow at that.

"She IS your twin, is she not?" Duo mumbled something incoherently before sighing.

"Yeah...yeah she is," he said quietly, letting a proud smile overtake his face as he gazed at his baby sister. Trio beamed up at him in return.

A few people down, Trowa was looking Trio over with quite a different glint in his eye. Unlike Duo, he happened to like the way the dress fit her, and he liked it a LOT. And damned if she didn't look a hell of a lot better in a dress than she did when she was dressed in Duo's slacks and a tie...

& & & &

The ceremony continued perfectly, ending with the typical, "You may now kiss the bride." Soon, the reception was in full swing. The speeches were said, first dances as man and wife were over with, and Duo was just about ready for the honeymoon. Hilde hadn't yet thrown the bouquet though.

Trio and Relena had been swing dancing together, trying to show Heero how it was done, when all the women were called over. It wasn't long before a decent sized throng of females was eagerly awaiting the toss.

"So Heero, you think Relena will catch it?" Trowa asked casually as he walked over to stand beside the shorter man. Heero snorted.

"Do you think Trio will?" he retorted lightly. Trowa turned away slightly, unable to stop the red from creeping into his cheeks. Heero chuckled a little before Duo popped up behind him and answered his question.

"Trio?" he snorted, throwing an arm around Heero's and then Trowa's neck. "I don't think so." He watched Hilde turn around and cover her eyes with one hand as she held the bouquet with the other. Vaguely, he noticed Trio and Relena hanging around the back of the crowd, and sagged a little with relief that they didn't seem to be very serious about catching the flowers.

Of course, it didn't help that Hilde had noticed as well.

"Alright, girls, on the count of three! Oooone...Twooooo...THREE!" the raven-haired girl cried, throwing the bouquet up in a high arc towards the back of the room. Duo tensed briefly, until he saw Relena get in position to catch it.

"Of course...Relena might," he said cheerfully, slightly raising an eyebrow. Before he could blink, Heero was gone from beneath his arm and by Relena, snagging her wrist and pulling her up against his chest.

"What- Heero?" she asked, turning slightly and facing him with questioning eyes. He cut her off, quickly kissing her rather sloppily on the lips before smiling.

"I think I'd prefer to ask you myself when the time comes, rather than having a bunch of flowers decide for me," he said softly, eyes twinkling in the dim light. He caught site of Trio out of the corner of his eye, stepping into the spot Relena had previously been standing, and gently catching the bouquet as it fell into her arms. Relena grinned widely up at him, before she placed a hand on the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet her lips.

"Works for me," she said quietly when they broke apart from each other. Heero didn't get the chance to rely as Duo appeared next to the two, arms crossed and foot tapping the floor agitatedly.

"Way to go, Heero. You let TRIO catch it, baka."

"Oh hush, Duo," Trio said, stepping up to him and pulling him into a hug. "Your lady awaits. You still have the garter to throw," she reminded him. He sent her a mock grouchy look before smirking and heading off to the front of the crowd.

"All men over this way!" he called out. No one seemed to notice the evil glint in his eye. Heero, having spotted Quatre and Wufei off to the side, went over to stand beside them, leaving Trio and Relena to themselves.

"What, you're not trying to get the garter?" he asked as he came up to them.

"...You do know that Trio caught the bouquet, right?" Wufei asked, crossing his arms. Heero nodded.

"I was there." Wufei glanced at Quatre briefly, before the blonde spoke up.

"Oi, Heero, it's a tradition at American weddings for the man who catches the garter to put it back on the woman who caught the bouquet." Quatre nodded as a look of dawning realization appeared in Heero's eyes. "Wufei and I would prefer not to meet our deaths by making Trowa jealous and sending Duo into his overprotective mode." Heero smirked at that.

"That would explain why Trowa is still in the crowd then."

Back where the girls were standing, Relena and Trio had noticed the same thing.

"Man, Trio, that boy has got it bad for you!" Relena commented giddily, giggling at the thought. Trio grinned despite herself. She had no doubt that Trowa would somehow end up with the garter. She just hoped her brother didn't pull out a gun when he had to put it on her...

Sally walked over to join the two younger girls as Duo proceeded in removing the garter from Hilde, taking his sweet time while doing so.

"Nice catch there, Trio," the blonde woman commented, and Trio smiled at her.

"Thanks Sally, I thought so too." Without warning, Duo used the garter like a slingshot and fired it above the crowd, quickly jumping out of the way as a mad scramble for it ensued. Trio couldn't stop the blush from spreading across her cheeks as Trowa somehow emerged victorious from beneath the pile, grinning like a madman. Her blush deepened as Sally and Relena turned mischievous smiles towards her.

"So, Trio, when's the wedding?" Relena said teasingly, still grinning at her friend. Trio sighed almost wistfully, unconsciously clutching the bouquet close to her bosom. She smiled softly, catching Trowa's eye across the crowd.

"Sometime soon, I hope..."

**¡(the real) END!**

* * *

So there's actually a sequel to this. It's just a one-shot, a follow-up of sorts, I guess. It'll be posted in a couple of days! Thanks for reading!

-Maxine


End file.
